The Compassionate Friends is a nonprofit self-help organization whose mission it is to assist families in the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child and to provide information to help others be supportive.

Chapter 1911 meets on the third Thursday of the month at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 620 Romeo Street just north of downtown Rochester. Of about 200 families, half are from Macomb County. New families come in all the time, and families farther along in their grief journey will eventually move away from the group but the number stays pretty constant.