Lightways Annual Appeal

Every gift to Lightways matters!

Whether your gift is large or small, your support makes a meaningful difference. A donation to the Grief Support Fund helps ensure that families in our community receive compassionate, no-cost grief services when they need them most.

As the year draws to a close, we are filled with gratitude for the many individuals and organizations whose unwavering generosity continues to light the way for our mission.

At Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care, we are honored to be a source of light, comfort, and care for more than 4,000 patients and their families each year. For over four decades, families have invited us into their most personal moments—allowing us to provide expert medical care, emotional support, and the compassion that defines our work.

As the largest nonprofit hospice in northern Illinois, Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care depends on community support to sustain our mission of compassionate care. While we continue to provide exceptional hospice and palliative care for adults and children, this year our focus turns to one of the most meaningful parts of our work — our Grief Support Program. Offered to anyone in the community at no cost, these services provide comfort, counseling, and hope to families navigating loss.

At a time when mental health resources are stretched thin, Lightways stands apart by offering specialized grief counseling at no cost to the community. Grief is not a mental health disorder—it is a natural response to loss. Our dedicated counselors help individuals and families navigate this journey, reducing the risk of complicated grief and fostering healing and resilience. Your support makes this possible.

Because of you, we can continue to say yes—to hope, to healing, and to the compassionate support our community needs.

Your generosity makes it possible for Lightways to offer Grief Support Services to anyone navigating the pain of loss at no cost. These programs extend comfort and care far beyond the bedside, ensuring that no one has to face grief alone.

Here’s what your support makes possible:

• Specialized grief counseling, offered at no cost, to individuals and families, including those coping with traumatic losses. In 2024, 20% of the clients we served were grieving the death of a loved one under traumatic circumstances.
• Accessible care for all, with counseling available in Spanish to meet the needs of our diverse community.
• Support for young people, with counseling provided directly in local high schools, helping teens process grief in a safe and familiar environment.
• Connection through community, with a variety of support groups, both in person and virtual, to meet people where they are in their grief journey.
• Healing through engagement, with interactive workshops that encourage reflection and growth— consistently well-attended and highly rated by participants.
• Moments of remembrance, through family-centered events and community gatherings where people of all ages can honor and celebrate the lives of those they’ve lost.

Thank you for your generosity.

For more information or questions please contact Patrick Belics, Director of Philanthropy at 779.242.1536 or email [email protected].