Who We Are

Vision Statement​

The Bradley Center provides peer-group, interfaith grief support for children and families, offering a safe and supportive place for hope and healing.

Why?

Grieving children who don’t receive help dealing with their loss are at higher risk for developing depression and anxiety, a drop in school performance, withdrawal, lowered self-esteem, panic disorders, self-destructive behaviors like drug addiction, and even suicidal ideation. Unresolved grief can permanently alter the course of their lives in negative ways.

As mothers of 6 of the 17 children who lost their fathers suddenly in the Coca Cola corporate plane crash that killed 8 Salt Lake City men in 1996, founders Carrie Moore and Janice Taylor understand the devastation experienced by children and families who lose a family member. We have now chosen to use our own experiences in coping with tragedy as the catalyst for creating an organization to provide hope for others dealing with loss.

By doing so, tragedy can be transformed into triumph through interfaith acceptance and outreach in a way that can motivate and inspire our community.

 

Who?

One in 7 children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling before age 20. In the combined Salt Lake/Utah county area, that means 69,723 children will experience such a loss.

What?

The Bradley Center is an interfaith-based community resource serving grieving children and families by providing:

*Peer-based grief support in a family setting that allows for processing shared experience with death.

*Age-based peer group discussion and activities overseen by trained volunteer facilitators, working with small groups of children, teens, young adults and parents.

*A safe space to talk about the role of God or a higher power and how a person’s individual belief system plays in their grieving process.

*Educational outreach to schools, churches and community groups.

How?

Staff and trained volunteers oversee our age-based peer group grief support program. Family members attend together one night every other week, where they participate in age-based groups and activities that allow for creative expression and sharing as a way to work through the grieving process in a safe and supportive environment.

As a non-profit organization, The Bradley Center charges a small fee-for-service to families who are supported by our interfaith peer-group program. A scholarship application is available for those who need financial assistance. The bulk of the Center’s financial support comes via donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and the community at large.

Background

Jan. 15, 2016, marked the 20th anniversary of the plane crash that killed 8 men – 4 of them Swire Coca Cola executives. All were dedicated husbands and fathers, and their memory still lives on not only with their families and friends, but within the wider Utah communities they served. The center honors their memory and is named after Bradley Moore, whose widow, Carrie, has realized a long-term dream in organizing The Bradley Center. She has teamed with Janice Taylor, who lost her husband, Craig, in the same accident, to make the center a reality.

The plane crash anniversary date provided the perfect opportunity to introduce the center, its mission and its supporters to Utahns through a variety of media outlets (see our Media page in the About Us menu tab). A press conference and open house were held that day, generating wide media attention and community support.

Based on the model forged by the nation’s first children’s peer group grief support facility — The Dougy Center in Portland — The Bradley Center is founded on the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to grieve in a supportive and understanding environment. At our center, that includes an interfaith recognition of the role that God or a higher power can play in healing. Death creates questions about life’s meaning, and the role of God or a higher power in our lives. The founders understand through personal experience that many families need a place to share their grief journey with others in an interfaith setting which recognizes, and supports, the role that individual belief can play in healing.