A Wavertree charity that helps bereaved families could close down after the summer after losing essential funding.
Love Jasmine was set up in 2016 by Rob and Kathy Lapsley after their daughter, Jasmine, passed away in 2014 at six years old.
The charity provides support for bereaved families in Merseyside, through a range of services including counselling, family group work and support groups.
It was established due to a lack of peer or group support for families to meet.
The charity’s services offer both holistic and traditional forms of support, from EMDR therapy for people who struggle with flashbacks to yoga and meditation for self-care. It also offers funds for people who are unable to return to work after the loss of their child.
In 2018, it introduced counselling, which is now one of their most accessed yet costly services. Last year, they supported over 200 people in unlimited and untimed 1-to-1 counselling sessions and 300 people in other services.
This year they were unable to secure funding from the National Lottery and now need to raise around £90,000. This accounts for around 35-40% of the charity’s budget each year, so they are now having to begin reducing services.
Over the next eight weeks, they will begin halting some family counselling sessions to account for the upcoming financial loss.
Mr Lapsley said: “We need to give ourselves time to get the money back through the door so we can reinstate everything back to where it was.”
He has begun appealing for public funding and donations to help them keep up with services before the funding ends in July.
Earlier this year, Love Jasmine had around 110 people in counselling at one time. However, the number is now down to 85 as they have had to stop taking referrals.
Mr Lapsley explained: “What makes it different is that people here know what the families are experiencing. We’ve been through it ourselves, and most of the counsellors who’ve been here have as well.”
They don’t use trainee counsellors; they make sure families get the right support from experienced professionals. Over the past decade, the NHS have been their biggest refers for people needing the support they offer.
Mr Lapsley said: “We’ve never received any help from them. And referrals are constant, and they need to shoulder some of this blame. One of the reasons we’ve grown is that they refer more people. We can only bring in so much money ourselves.”
He described Love Jasmine’s efforts to create a safe place for families, where people have told them they feel
more comfortable at Love Jazmine than at home.
When speaking about Merseyside’s history and recent events with child bereavement, Rob said, “It can trigger emotions and physical reactions that another person wouldn’t experience.”
He identified how the groups can empathise and understand what the families are going through.
