Cafe Conversations

Getting people together in a cafe to talk about death is an idea that has grown in popularity in recent years.

Death Cafes

The most well-known model is that of the Death Cafe, whereby “people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death”. More information about Death Cafes and how to organise them is available on the Death Cafe website.

Conversation Menus

Death Cafes have ‘ no agenda, objectives or themes’. Those who prefer a more structured session might want to think about organising a similar event in a local cafe, but using a ‘conversation menu’ to get conversations started.

A sample conversation menu is available to download here: Conversation Menu. You could adapt this to make your own conversation menu, or have different themes on different weeks.

Other ideas

If you prefer to create your own event structure, there are a number of resources available on this website that might be useful as prompts and conversations starters. Some examples are given below, but check out the full resources page here: GLGDGG resources.

Films

Short films can be useful as discussion prompts and educational tools. A selection of free short films on the subjects of illness, death and bereavement is available here: Short film collection

Origami game

This small origami game encourages people to ‘plan your own future’, including prompts and information relating to legal, medical, practical and personal aspects of advance care planning.

Exhibition

We have worked with award-winning Glasgow based photographer, Colin Gray, to produce a powerful and challenging series of portraits and personal stories. It Takes a Village explores 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.