By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Center for Life Experience, which supports grief support groups in Hays, has hired a new director, Laura Allen of Hays.
Allen, 50, spent five years at First Call for Help as a client service specialist. She recently graduated with the 2023 Leadership Hays class.
She said making the jump to a non-profit director position would be a better fit for her degree in business, which she earned at Fort Hays State University.
Allen also works part-time with DSNWK and is on the steering committee for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Hays.
She has two adult sons and a daughter, who is a 2023 Hays High School graduate and will be studying at NCK-Tech in the fall.
"After First Call, I love the idea of non-profits," she said. "I love helping people in different situations. A director position is a really good combination of the two."
Because she is a full-time staff of one, she will still interact regularly with clients.
She hopes to seek new grants to support the organization and will be taking a grant-writing class at FHSU to that end.
She said she would like to get to the point where the center could hire another staff member.
Allen said she has spoken to the board about expanding the center's offerings.
"Grief takes a lot of different forms," she said. "I think there are opportunities there to be a little more inclusive and to find other ways we can support people in the community through different groups or different activities."
The center offers three grief support groups— Healing After Loss, Healing After Loss of Suicide, which is also known as HALOS, and Healing Hearts.
Healing After Loss is for any adult grieving the loss of another adult. It meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month in the center's conference room at Oak Plaza, 103 C. E. 27th St. in Hays.
Healing After Loss of Suicide meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of the month in the center's conference room. As the name implies, this support group is for people who are grieving the loss of someone to suicide.
Healing Hearts is for people who are grieving the loss of a child, no matter what age the child was when he or she died. That group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month in the center's conference room.
All support groups are free and in-person. They are open to anyone in the area, and you do not need to register to attend.
The center also is sponsoring an event for children on July 22.
The youth will participate in craft projects. A taco bar is being donated by Taco Grande for the children and their registered adults. The children will conclude the evening with swim time.
"I think we may have expectations for children and think they maybe are not in tune, or people may not think their grieving is not as significant as an adult's," Allen said. "I don't think that is true. I think it's just a different dynamic."
People come from across northwest Kansas to participate in the center's groups.
Allen said support groups are different than sessions with a therapist. Support group members have similar lived experiences and can offer empathy.
"You don't have to explain yourself, or you can just vent or cry or whatever you have to do, and no one judges you for that," she said. "I think that offers a sense of relief and security that there is a safe place for me to go do that."
If you would like to donate to the center, donation links are on the center's website. You can also donate by mailing a check to the center at Oak Plaza, 103 C. E. 27th St., Hays, KS 67601.
"Hays has a really robust community service community," Allen said. "Working with those folks is something that I'm glad I can continue by coming here."
For more information on the center or its groups, you can call or text 785-259-6859 or email [email protected]. You can also follow the center on Facebook.