Jen Schwartz

Sibling Loser

Jen Schwartz graduated from Long Island University at CW Post in 2007 with a Master’s Degree in School Counseling and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Psychology from Lehigh University. During her graduate school internship, Jen co-facilitated a bereavement support group for middle school students who had expressed a need for a space to talk about their losses and the impact it had on them.

In 2008, Jen started working as an educational advocate for the Long Island Advocacy Center (LIAC), assisting students with disabilities who were involved in the juvenile justice system, to obtain the appropriate educational services to be successful in school. Jen co-wrote a youth-centered curriculum and co-facilitated groups for teens with behavioral and/or emotional difficulties. LEAP (Learning, Exploring, Advocating, and Persevering) focused on helping teens to become more self-aware and to develop helpful communication skills so they could become self-advocates. She continues her work in advocacy and is now an Assistant Director for LIAC.

Jen also works as the Youth Engagement Director for the North Shore Jewish Center where she creates and implements programs for the synagogue’s youth groups. In 2015, Jen started jGAY! (Jewish Gay and Allied Youth), the first support group on Long Island for Jewish LGBTQ+ youth and families.

Most recently, Jen has partnered with a social worker to co-facilitate Gender and Neuro Diverse support groups for middle and high school students.

When Jen’s older brother passed suddenly in July 2016, she attended her first COPE (Connecting Our Paths Eternally) sibling support group. COPE Foundation is a non-profit grief and healing organization dedicated to helping parents, siblings, and families living with the loss of a child. She remembers feeling more connected to a group of strangers than to anyone else in her life at that time. She continues to attend the Long Island sibling group monthly, not because of her individual ‘need’ to attend, but because she knows there will always be someone new starting the group and if people stopped attending once they felt they didn’t ‘need’ it, then who would be there for the next person to show up?
After serving on COPE’s Family Advisory and Program Committees, and becoming a COPE Ambassador in December 2020, Jen joined COPE's Board of Directors in March 2021, and in November 2021 she and Larry Mergentime were elected as Co-Presidents of COPE.