SIDS & Kids SA expands charter to support SA Community.

To our Community of Stakeholders and Supporters,

SIDS and Kids SA is evolving and growing to meet the needs of the South Australian Community.

For 45 years SIDS and Kids SA have provided the South Australian community with safe sleep education and grief support for families who have been impacted by the sudden unexpected death of a child from conception to 6 years of age.

In recent years we have received requests to support families who experience the same type of loss beyond the pre-school years through unexpected events such as drowning, road trauma and sudden onset illness. SIDS and Kids SA have also received feedback from clients and clinicians that the SIDS and Kids SA name has resulted in some confusion.  Many believe that we only provide support and grief counselling for families that experience the death of a baby due to SIDS. This is not the case. As such, the SIDS and Kids SA Board have made the decision to separate our two key services and extend our charter. Safe sleep services will be branded SIDS and Kids SA and bereavement services will be branded Red Tree Foundation.

In September we will be introducing the Red Tree Foundation which will provide bereavement support for families who experience the sudden unexpected death of a child from conception to 17 years of age. From feedback we know that our quality and compassionate bereavement support contributes to healing, growth and stronger families and communities.

The Red Tree Foundation will be operated by the same staff, counsellors and Board as SIDS and Kids SA and will complement the safe sleep education and training that SIDS and Kids SA will continue to provide to new parents, carers, childcare centres and healthcare professionals.

The Red Tree Brand was developed from a longstanding image that sits in the SIDS and Kids SA office that displays hearts on a tree. The colour red is very much a part of our organisation’s history, and the tree has many symbolic meanings with life and connection to family.

The new brand image depicts a tree whose strong trunk is symbolic of the solid and grounded support the Red Tree Foundation offers families. The red heart shaped leaves of the tree represent the children who have passed away, but who lovingly remain in the hearts and minds of families.

The Red Tree Foundation is launching on September 1^st, the first day of spring.  The timing is important in telling the story that while grief can be experienced as a winter, with the support of the Foundation, there is the possibility of a spring. Red Tree is committed to walking with families to move out of the winter of their grief.

Our logo symbolises both grief and hope; the process where the leaves of Adelaide’s trees turn red and the trees replenish their resources to grow new ones.