Tuesday's Children

Tuesday’s Children is a non-profit family service organization that “has made a long term commitment to meet the needs of every family who lost a loved one in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001”. Since 2001, Tuesday’s Children has promoted healing and recovery by strengthening family resilience, providing individual coping and life management skills and creating community through programs, mental health support and family engagement opportunities. In the past decade, Tuesday’s Children has worked with 5,500 individuals, including 3,000 children, who lost a loved one in 9/11 and 2,000 under-served recovery workers and their families. More recently, efforts have been made by the organization to expand their programming and services to those affected by terrorism around the world through “Project Common Bond,” an 8-day peace-building and leadership camp for teens that share a “common bond” of losing a loved one to terrorism.

History

Tuesday’s Children was founded by family and friends of 9/11 victims in the days following the September 11 attacks. In 2008, Tuesday’s Children expanded its efforts in the First Responder Alliance, which serves First Responders that worked in the rescue and recovery after 9/11 and have suffered side effects, as well as their families. In 2008, Tuesday's Children also began to include the international community through Project Common Bond, which brings together teens, ages 15–20, that have lost a loved one due to terrorism. The camp has taken place in locations from Belfast, Northern Ireland to this year’s Boston, Massachusetts. Most recently, the organization has received generous funding from Johan Santana of the New York Mets to expand programming to reach more Spanish-speaking 9/11 families.

Programming

Tuesday’s Children focuses on addressing the ongoing needs of families directly impacted by 9/11 by providing programming and forming community. The Mentoring program places volunteer mentors with children that lost family members in 9/11 with the goal of forming long-term relationships with adult role models that support them and help them to build resilience. Child, Adolescent, Young Adult, and Adult Programs address a range of needs, from career services to health and wellness, service trips called "Helping Heals", and preparing adults that have lost loved ones to deal with the challenges of a single-parent household. Counseling services are provided by an on-staff psychologist, and Family Engagement programs partner with influential organizations like the New York Mets, Yankees, Knicks, and Giants to form community through fun outings and activities for 9/11 families.

Project Common Bond

Project COMMON BOND is the most expansive and fastest-growing Tuesday’s Children program, and seeks to unite teens from around the world that have lost loved ones to terrorism in a camp that focuses on peace-building and leadership. In past years, Project COMMON BOND has featured participants from 11 countries and territories, including Argentina, England, Ireland, Israel, Liberia, Northern Ireland, the Palestinian territory, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, and the United States that gather together to “Let Our Past Change Our Future.” New countries in 2012 include: Algeria, France, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Pakistan. The camp uses a curriculum designed by Harvard University Law School's Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program as well as a dignity model developed at the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Publications

The Legacy Letters were published by Tuesday’s Children, edited by New York Times best-selling author Brian Curtis, and feature a compilation of a hundred letters of family members to their loved ones lost in 9/11. The ISBN number is 0399537082.

Fundraising

Major sponsors for Tuesday’s Children include Allstate Insurance, American Red Cross, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Mets, the New York Giants, and other notably large corporations.