Brave Penny is a grief ministry providing Christian based resources for those who have suffered all types of grief and loss. We offer in-person and online grief recovery classes, training for those who minister to the grieving, and books and materials to support grief recovery. We are currently piloting our first grief recovery classes in Spanish.
The Executive Director and founder of Brave Penny, Sharon Fox, a Certified Grief Facilitator, developed and has delivered the Shadowlands program for recovery from grief and loss for more than twenty years. Shadowlands has grown from an in-person offering twice a year at Sharon's home church to also being offered online to serve clients across the US and beyond. The program has been licensed to several other churches and organizations. Shadowlands differs from some other Christian grief programs in that it addresses not just the death of a loved one, but the grief experienced by those who suffer other losses such as job loss, divorce, loss of a pet, or any other traumatic loss.
Sharon has authored multiple books addressing various types of loss. The book "Reframing Adoption" by Sharon refined the basic recovery principles and processes of Shadowlands to support the specific to the needs of Birthmothers. Sharon's second book "A Precious Loss" is a companion to another grief recovery program, Precious Losses, which was designed for families who have experienced infant death through miscarriage, stillbirth, illness, as well as infertility. Her most recent offering is "Grieving with God," a journal with helpful information and writing prompts that aids in processing grief.
Your financial support of Brave Penny will allow us to expand the development and implementation of training programs to reach a larger group of caregivers to include clergy, lay-leaders, and compassionate friends to minister more effectively to those who grieve.
When we began, our mission was focused on delivering Shadowlands directly to churches, by leading the sessions in-person. We then added online courses via Zoom that enabled us to minister to people across the United States, Canada, and other countries. The next step was to train individuals and teams to deliver the program at the organization level by creating internet-delivered training to similar individuals or teams who will in turn lead the efforts within their own organizations. The audiences for training now include Chaplaincy teams and Crisis Response Ministers as well as ministers and lay leaders. Shadowlands course materials have been translated into Spanish and we are piloting online and in-person courses in North Texas this year with an enthusiastic reception so far.
Our goals for 2026 and 2027 are ambitious:
- To streamline our grief curriculum to make it easier for lay leaders to present and for participants to clearly understand key grief recovery concepts
- To create new participant workbooks and leader guides, as well as video teaching resources, in order to broaden the reach of our grief recovery courses
- To make our website more attractive and functional to better serve our clients and better market and distribute our grief materials
- To hire a new ED with expertise in fundraising and marketing to take our organization to the next level
We are asking for your prayers and financial support to partner with us in achieving these goals!
EMBRACING THOSE WHO GRIEVE
Brave Penny's mission is to create and deliver grief recovery programs to assist individuals and families and to train ministers and other caregivers to process and recover from a life changing loss. The programs combine traditional secular grief recovery systems with Christian-based, biblical insights into God's guidance when traveling through "the valley of death" and into a place of contentment and peace.
The roots of this grief recovery method were established in Shadowlands, a program created for church-based ministries to assist members suffering a profound loss. Used successfully for nearly 25 years by many churches in the US and abroad, Brave Penny now makes it more widely available with remote internet-enabled training and videos.
In addition to financial support, Brave Penny is open to new volunteer and board members, particularly those with expertise in video production, marketing, social media, and fundraising.
Organization name
Brave Penny
Tax id (EIN)
46-4292639
Causes
Mental and Behavioral Health
Operating Budget
Less than $100,000
Counties Served
Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant
BIPOC Leadership
Neither/None
Address
8339 Fair Oaks Drive