Recently the boards of Sands and Red Nose resolved to bring our organisations together. This means that from 1 April 2020, Sands will become part of Red Nose. The new organisation will continue to be called Red Nose but our peer-to-peer support services and events will still be delivered under the Sands brand.

Sands and Red Nose have for some time been exploring the idea of joining forces to create a single organisation that will deliver high quality bereavement care and work towards preventing pregnancy, infant and child loss.

Both Sands and Red Nose were founded by bereaved parents who wanted to make sure families received support following the death of a baby. As such, both organisations share a long history, similar values, and a shared vision for the future – to provide parents with the best possible bereavement support services, to ensure they receive that support as long as they need it, to change the way the community thinks about pregnancy and infant loss and to advocate for better measures to prevent it from occurring.

The Sands model of care is grounded in peer support, which will now be strengthened through access to professional counselling services where needed. This will simplify the process of seeking support and ensure families receive the right help on their grief journey. As a joint organisation, we will have an even greater capacity to provide high quality bereavement support services and to invest more of our community funding into programs to support Australian families.

Once the current administration activities are completed, we expect that our day to day operations will remain largely unchanged. Sands staff and volunteers will continue doing their important work. We will continue to run our local offices and support groups focused on the local community.

There will be a considered process to bring our existing services and teams together that will take place over the next twelve months.

We are excited about the next chapter for Sands and are grateful for your continued support of bereaved families across Australia.