Bellis™

We asked Jessica, a longtime program participant, if special care from Bellis improved her life. Her answer? 

'It inspired me and encouraged me, but most of all, it gave me hope. 

I finally had hope back in my life, and at one point I was hopeless.' 

Join Bellis in returning hope to women navigating a loss like no other

Founded in 1983, Bellis has 40 years of knowledge gained from experience working within the adoption community as a nonprofit with no political or religious affiliation or agenda. Bellis hears, validates, supports and connects people touched by adoption and foster care. Bellis leads national groundbreaking work offering grief support to mothers whose children are parented by others; we are experts in creating space to talk openly and honestly about it all and the pain of ambiguous loss. Together, we work to fight stigma and offer compassion, hope, and resilience. Bellis is independent of child-placing agencies, child welfare systems and courts.

 Bellis services include:

• Expert-led, peer-based grief support for people whose children are parented by others. Participants of Bellis programs come to us with a wide variety of experiences, including adoption, foster care, termination of parental rights, transfer of custody, parental alienation, custody disputes, open child protection cases, and many other circumstances. At Bellis, we welcome everyone regardless of the circumstances surrounding their parenting status. Our Stronger Together Peer Support Model™ is built on the knowledge that empathy — sharing your story with someone who accepts you completely — is transformative. 
  
  
  • Stronger Together Support Phone Line. Every day, Bellis receives text messages and phone calls from people across the country experiencing complex trauma and ambiguous loss due having children who are parented by others. People can call or text anytime, and a trained team member will pick up the call or respond promptly.  
  • Tuesdays in-person group in Minneapolis. This is a weekly grief support group for women in the greater metropolitan area. Local transportation assistance is available. Limited legal guidance is available thanks to a partnership with Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Bellis believes in radical hospitality, and we are pleased to serve cold water, hot coffee, freshly baked cookies and other snacks at this meeting.
  • Cohort at Minnesota Correctional Facility - Shakopee. Bellis is humbled to enter a local women's prison each week to conduct the sixth cohort of a grief support group for incarcerated mothers.  
  • Five weekly online groups are available to nationwide participants each week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Four groups for women, and one group for men. Bellis online groups support a growing network of people whose children are parented by others. These meetings provide a private and safe space for participants to share their stories. 
  • Presentations to professional and community-based organizations about Bellis support and how to refer people to our services.

Hear the voices of the people we serve. Minnesota Public Radio captured stories, images and voices of one of our weekly Stronger Together sessions, this one at the women's prison in Shakopee.

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