Overview
TAPS is the national organization providing compassionate care for all those grieving the death of a military loved one.
Founded in 1994, the mission of TAPS is to provide peer-based emotional support to all those who are grieving the death of someone whose life included military service to the United States. This support is offered regardless of the cause of death, times since death, or relationship to the deceased and available at no cost to military survivors through the generous support of donors and sponsors.
This makes TAPS unique in that its mission does not solely focus on combat deaths and the primary next of kin. Rather, grief support and resources are extended to anyone impacted by a military death, including battle buddies of the deceased. Studies show on average, at least eleven people are impacted by a single death.
The heart of TAPS is survivors helping survivors heal. A growing body of evidence supports “companioning” through peer-based emotional support as an effective strategy to assist the bereaved. Since its launch, TAPS has cared for the thousands of military survivors through a national network of peer-based emotional support services and it has emerged as a leading voice in advocacy for the compassionate care of our veterans and their families.
TAPS sets the industry standard for training, conducting briefings on grief, trauma, and suicide pre/postvention for military commands, corporations, and professionals across America. As a leader in grief work, TAPS has long been a resource for the broader civilian population and more recently made those resources readily available online to aid anyone impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19.
TAPS is a national nonprofit 501(c)3 Veterans Service Organization and is not part of, or endorsed by, the Department of Defense.
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) is a U.S. non-profit organization that provides care and support to families and friends grieving the loss of a member of the armed forces.
TAPS was founded in 1994 by Bonnie Carroll after her husband and 7 others were killed in a plane crash in Alaska. Since 1994 TAPS has conducted National Military Survivor Seminars and “Good Grief Camps". In 2007 TAPS 18 regional grief seminars and “Good Grief Camps” around the country at locations including Camp Lejeune, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Camp Pendleton, New York City, Fort Hood, Fort Carson, and Fort Drum. TAPS also holds a national seminar each year in Washington DC which features three days of workshops and information for survivors.
The mission of TAPS is to provide ongoing emotional help, hope, and healing to all who are grieving the death of a loved one in military service to America. TAPS is committed to providing compassionate care to all military survivors regardless of their relationship to the deceased or the circumstances or geography of the death. This is done through long-term, peer-based emotional support, crisis response and intervention, casualty casework assistance, and grief and trauma resources and information.
History
TAPS was founded in the wake of a military tragedy, after eight soldiers were killed in a C-12 plane crash in Alaska in November 1992. Among the grieving family members was Bonnie Carroll, the military widow of Army Brigadier General Tom Carroll. At the time there was no national emotional support network for the families of America's fallen heroes. The families therefore found support amongst each other then, often right at the comfort of their own kitchen tables.
After conducting two years of research examining the resources available to support bereaved military families and benchmarking best practices at other peer-based support organizations, Carroll founded TAPS in 1994 and still serves as its president and on its board of directors.
By September 2001, TAPS grief and peer support programming was already well established and trusted by senior leadership when the need for such services by military families would become perhaps the most critical and the United States entered into what would become its longest war. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors stepped forward to provide critical support and care as part of the Pentagon Family Assistance Center. They were uniquely positioned to provide compassionate peer support and understanding to surviving family members.