Men’s Retreat

This fun and exciting inaugural retreat will blend outdoor experiences in nature with facilitated conversations designed to build connections, skills, and insight to face grief and other life challenges. This free retreat is for husbands, male life partners, fathers, stepfathers, sons, stepsons, brothers, and stepbrothers, ages 18 and above, whose firefighter has been honored or is approved to be honored at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.

For men, sadness can be a difficult emotion to navigate, and emotional processing occurs differently for men. Often, men feel they must handle their emotions alone or they will show signs of weakness. Instead of emotional expression, men benefit greatly by being active. Projects or hobbies can lessen sadness and depression and provides purpose. Staying involved in favorite activities or trying something new gives men space and time that they need to process their feelings. The Men’s Retreat was designed to help men gain knowledge and skills to understand and deal with grief and to build supports as they move forward.

Participants have an opportunity to meet men from across the country who have experienced the death of a firefighter spouse, life partner, parent/stepparent, child/stepchild, or sibling/stepsibling. One of the important elements of this event is to bring men together who have experienced a similar loss, to share their stories and to create networks of support.