Our story
A story of hope, healing, and finding each other.
New Hope began with one nurse who believed no one should grieve alone, and grew into a community that has walked beside Long Beach families for more than twenty years.
our journey, in drawings
Scroll down, each chapter draws itself in.
2000
It started with one caring nurse.
Susan spent her days at patients’ bedsides, and dreamed of a warm place where grieving families could feel cared for, too.
A belief
Everyone deserves a place to heal.
She believed comfort and connection should be within reach for every family.
A spark
So New Hope was born.
Warm, welcoming support groups, created with love, open to anyone who was grieving.
The first circle
A few chairs, and open hearts.
Small, gentle, and confidential, a room that felt just like home.
Together
Surrounded by people who understand.
Every group is guided by facilitators who have found healing through grief themselves.
Every age
A place for the whole family.
Children, teens, and parents found comfort and belonging, side by side.
Pause the pain
Room to laugh, and simply be.
Coffee, music, and good company, a warm open-air social every second Tuesday.
Family camp
Where healing feels like joy.
Each year, families gather under the trees to play, remember, and grow together.
Brighter days
Step by step, toward hope.
Healing isn’t a straight line, but here, you never walk it alone.
Today
Still here, still reaching for the stars.
More than twenty years on, New Hope keeps growing, and so does the hope.
Our founder
Susan K. Beeney, R.N.
“It's the journey, not the summit. At last the ladder, which had been built slowly, one hope at a time, reached up to the clouds. And the dreamer began to climb.”
In 1986, Susan was a nurse on the cancer-leukemia ward at Long Beach Veterans Hospital. Again and again she met families searching for comfort after a loss, at a time when grief support in Long Beach was hard to find, and she believed something better was possible.
So she got to work. She wrote a Journey of Hope handbook in 1987, then began leading grief support groups in the community at night after work, as a volunteer, for 14 years.
In January 2000, Susan founded New Hope Grief Support Community, designing programs for adults, children, teens, and parents who had lost a child, and authoring children’s grief workbooks still used today.