Widowed Village connects widowed people through bad times and good. This is an involved and lively site for peer support. Like any village, we need each other and learn from others who are the same and from those who are different. We hope you’ll find sharing your sorrows, challenges, joys and daily experiences here will lighten and enlighten your journey.
About your privacy and security
- Widowed Village is the only site of its kind that screens new members for widowed status. Our members are concerned that everyone who participates here has lost a partner, so we will ask you for your real name and some other information when you sign up. Unless otherwise noted in the membership questionnaire, this information is for WV administrators’ use only. It will never be shared without your express permission.
About peer support
- Peer support is not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. In no situation should you construe what anyone here says as advice. If you observe inappropriate behavior, let us know at widville@soaringspirits.org.
- Share only what you’d share with a peer or other NEW friend. Although we do screen participants, you should NEVER share personal or financial details with someone you don’t know well.
- As a peer member, you should also keep in mind these boundaries. Please participate only where you have direct experience relevant to the conversation. For example, don’t participate in forums or groups for folks of age groups other than your own, don’t engage in a conversation about suicide if you’re not intimately familiar with the subject, etc.
- If you have background as a social worker or with other relevant subject matter, you may have to be especially careful. Please contact widville@soaringspirits.org whenever you have a question about these boundaries.
How we communicate with you
- We may occasionally send out a broadcast email to all members from the following email address: widvillle@soaringspirirts.org
Widowed Village (“WidVille” for short) is a resource center for widowed people as well as an online community. The majority of our site is open to the public, but our Groups and Discussions pages are private and require membership for access.
If you’d like to join our community, just apply by clicking the join button at the top of nearly every page. You’ll see that we ask a lot of personal questions; this information is used to verify that only widowed people join the site. In most cases, we approve US members within 24 hours; if you do not hear back from us within that time, please check your spam filter; our volunteers may have asked you for more information. All of this information is kept confidential and we do not share it.
WidVille is a program of Soaring Spirits, a U.S. non profit organization
About peer support
Widowed Village connects peers with each other for friendship and sharing. The moderators, administrators, and others involved in running this site are widowed people like you. Peer support is an excellent, social way to learn more about living with loss and gain energy and ideas for your path to a new life. We’ve been there, and it is so nice to have company.
But — we’re here as friends, not doctors or nurses, financial or legal professionals, social workers or therapists or psychiatrists. We’re not “grief experts” (we’re not sure anyone is).
Please don’t construe anything you read here as medical, legal, or otherwise expert advice. Don’t disregard any expert’s advice or take action as a result of what you read here. If you are coping with another serious problem in your life — like substance abuse, a health crisis, legal problems, or anything else that is affecting your daily functioning — please take care of yourself first and then join us for companionship.
As a peer, member, and citizen of this Village, you play a valuable role, too. Please read our terms of service and Village Values to find out how.
About your privacy
Widowed Village is a public site where you are protected by your anonymity. Please don’t use your real full name as your screen name (username). Our privacy controls work in a similar fashion to those on Facebook and can be located under the “My Widville” tab. It’s important to us that you are both aware AND in control of who sees what, and the controls are nearly infinitely customizable. More about your privacy….
Quick guide to what you can do on Widowed Village
Terms of service and Village Values
You can read the basics of “how we get along” here on the Village Values page and read the legalese here.