News
PHPCI Community Building Award
Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief has been awarded the prestigious ‘Community Builders’ award by Public Health Palliative Care International.
Last week saw hundreds of delegates gather in Bern, Switzerland for the biennial conference of Public Health Palliative Care International. A new feature of the conference are three PHPCI awards - Community Builder Award; Research Impact Award; and Early Career Researcher Award.
Despite exceptional applications from 15 other nominees from across four continents, the PHPCI judging panel unanimously chose the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care as the recipient of the Community Builder Award, commenting:
“The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care’s initiatives align exceptionally well with the community-building principles of public health palliative care in multiple ways.
Their Bereavement Friendly Workplaces Toolkit and Bereavement Charter Mark directly enhance community capacity by equipping organizations with tools to support individuals through grief in the workplace. By encouraging adoption of these resources, they create systemic change that improves the quality of life for bereaved individuals, a key element of public health palliative care.
Secondly, their ‘To Absent Friends Festival’ embodies participatory community building, bringing people together across Scotland to collectively honor and remember those who have died. Its focus on storytelling and communal remembrance fosters a supportive environment where grief and bereavement are openly acknowledged. Now in its 11th year, the festival’s longevity demonstrates the sustained community engagement and positive impact that this 7-day festival has for people across the country.”
“To Absent Friends and the Bereavement Charter Mark for Employers are both collaborative efforts - their impact is the result of the hard work, passion and dedication of volunteers, staff and organisations across Scotland. We are delighted that this work has been recognised by PHPCI.” said Rebecca Patterson, Director of Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief.
EASE wins an award
We’re delighted to announce that End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone (EASE), our public education course on death and dying, has won an award.
Run by the ALLIANCE, the Self Management Awards take place each year to celebrate the best of Self Management support across Scotland. This year, the winners were announced at the Self Management Awards ceremony which took place during Self Management Week on Wednesday 25 September.
EASE won in the category ‘Best Self-Management Resource’ - a category designed to recognise resources that help people to cope with and manage their own condition.
The award is fantastic recognition of the work of all the volunteer facilitators who give up their time to make the course happen in communities across Scotland.
End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone (EASE) is an innovative course enabling people across Scotland to be more comfortable and confident supporting family and community members with issues they face during dying, death and bereavement. It’s delivered free of charge by volunteer facilitators.
EASE uses films, reading, activities and discussion to explore topics such as planning ahead for ill-health, dying and death; common symptoms towards the end of life; and practical support we can offer people who are caring, dying or grieving. Participants learn and share in a supportive environment, helping to build a sense of community and empowerment.
Find out more about EASE here: End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone
To Absent Friends Guide
A new guide has been published to provide inspiration and information for people considering holding an event as part of this year’s To Absent Friends festival.
The guide provides some information about the festival, about the kinds of events that take place, and how you can get involved by holding an event for your own community.
To Absent Friends is a people’s festival of storytelling and remembrance that takes place across Scotland 1-7 November each year. The festival exists to encourage participation. Groups, communities and organisations are welcome to plan events, and these become the To Absent Friends event programme.
To find out more about the festival and how you can get involved, check out our website: To Absent Friends | Hold an event
Small Grants Available
-300.jpg)
A small grants fund has been set up to support organisations to put on remembrance events as part of this year’s To Absent Friends festival (1-7 November 2024.)
Two types of small grants (of up to £300) are available:
The fund aims to support activities that provide opportunities for storytelling and/or remembrance of people who have died.
The range of ways in which organisations can participate is wide and varied.
In previous years, events have included concerts, poetry nights, craft activities, storytelling suppers, exhibitions, gardening activities, movies for children and much more. Some ideas of relevant activities organisations might wish to undertake are available in this Guide to Organising an Event, but we also encourage creative and innovative ideas that feel right to local groups and communities.
For more information and to apply, check out the To Absent Friends website: To Absent Friends small grants 2024
New Demystifying Death Week Guide
Demystifying Death Week: Designing your event is a new guide to help you design an impactful event for Demystifying Death Week. It gives examples of potential event formats and issues for consideration.
This is the latest in a series of Demystifying Death Week guides, which have been updated this year:
- Designing your event
- Facilitation skills
Event Ideas: templates and activities- Hosting an online event: hints and tips
All of these guides can be accessed free of charge on our website: Demystifying Death Week Guides for Event Organisers
We welcome new activities and events as part of Demystifying Death Week. If you're interested in getting involved, please check out our website for more information on how to hold an event. Below are some resources that might help...
Guides for event organisers: We have put together a series of guides to support people to design and hold Demystifying Death Week events: Designing your event; Facilitation skills; Event Ideas: templates and activities; Hosting an online event: hints and tips. These are all available here: DD Week Guides for Event Organisers
Information leaflets: We have eleven different leaflets that provide information relating to death, dying and bereavement. Hard copies can be ordered, or you can download the leaflets directly from our website. A full list and further information is available here: Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief Information leaflets.
It Takes A Village exhibition: It Takes a Village is a powerful series of portraits and personal stories exploring the idea that as people’s health deteriorates, care and support comes in many guises. We have a limited number of copies of the exhibition available to lend out. If you would like to provide a venue to host the exhibition, please get in touch.
Films: short films on the subjects of illness, death and bereavement can be useful as discussion prompts and educational tools: Films relating to death, dying, loss and care
Origami game: this is a mini-future care planning prompt.... in the form of a small origami game. More information about the game and how to download it is available here: Origami game
Conversation menu: The Dining with Death conversation menu is designed to act as an ice-breaker to give people inspiration and permission to talk about death-related matters. It can be used flexibly, across different types of events and different audiences.
Books: Information about holding a book club, alongside a list of books on the theme of death, dying and loss is available here: book club.
All of these resources are available on our website here: Information and resources for event organisers
RSS