parents, health care providers, artists, researchers, and students working to empower families and educate communities about baby loss  

The Scraps of the Heart Project constitutes community-based paticipatory action research. This type of work involves researchers working with community members or stakeholders to identify key challenges or problems facing the community. Together they then determine ways they can address the issues through jointly enagaging in the research process.

So far our collective has identified two challenges that the baby loss community faces: 1) lack of creative means for coping with the death of our babies and 2) lack of awareness on the part of health care providers, family members and friends, and policy makers regarding the significance of baby loss. Therefore, we are adddressing these challenges by offering creative arts workshops to bereaved parents and by conducting service-learning research along with University of Denver students. Additonally, as a way of educating others about our babies' lives and deaths we showcased parents' artwork in a public exhibit at the University of Denver's Museum of Anthropology in March 2017. Through researching these avenues, our hope is that we will empower families, help them heal, and help others learn what it means to experience baby loss.

As this is just the start of the work of our collective, we are looking for others who are interested in joining us so that we can continue to address needs of the baby loss community. We meet periodically to discuss what research needs to be done along with The Scraps of the Heart Project and how we can carry out that research together. Depending on members' areas of expertise, we call on them to share their advice and skills. You are welcome to be involved as little or as much as your schedule allows. If you are a parent or family member who has lost a baby, a friend, a health care provider, an artist, or someone simply looking to do this meaningful work, please contact us for more information!