Community and Education
Groups and organisations working to increase understanding and community involvement around dying, death, and grief.
Alongside Dying - A School for Community Death Care
Emma is the founder and holder of Alongside dying - a school for community death care held in Clanfield, Hampshire. The school is a place of remembering, a return to the old human skills of being alongside death, dying, loss and endings, learned slowly and in companionship over six months of in-person days and online gatherings. There are no qualifications given for attending and some come to this work as family or friends; others as carers, celebrants, or end-of-life and death doulas seeking deeper roots. The school works on behalf of relearning and democratising death wisdom and the practices of caring for our families and communities when dying shows up among those we alongside.
Befriend The End
Run by Melissa Wall, Befriend the End is a death and dying awareness group in New Alresford on the first Wednesday of every month at the town library. 2-3pm. Everyone is welcome. You can contact us at; contact@befriendtheend.co.uk
).png)
Death Cafe
Death Cafe is a free community space to come, connect, and start a dialogue about death and dying, over a cup of tea and cake.
​
We explore our thoughts, fears, experiences and curiosities around death. By bringing these conversations out of the shadows, we can reduce fear, deepen our appreciation for life, and build a healthier relationship with mortality.
​
There is no agenda, teaching or preaching. Simply honest conversations about death in a safe, respectful and supportive space.
Whatever your reason for attending, and whatever your walk of life, you're welcome.
Let's Have a Walk & Talk About Death
Come together with others for a morning walk with Old Winchester Hill, to get curious about death, facilitated by Emily Chiswell
​
Not for fixing, analysing or solving, but a time to wonder as we wander about what happens when we allow ourselves to talk about endings.
​
A short walk that happens seasonally, with some time sitting in conversation with tea & snacks.
​​
For more details drop Emily an email
Death & Dinner
Ten years ago, as her husband wrestled with terminal cancer, Emma was thrust unprepared into the realities of what it is to die in a death-phobic culture.
Several times a year she invites eight strangers to her table and cooks for them, and they talk about death. They talk about the deaths they have experienced, the ones they can see coming, their own fears about dying, the things they wish they could have done differently, the things they want to do differently in the future. And they talk about how rare it is to be in conversation like this. The evenings can be tender and gritty but also useful and beautiful and everyone is welcome.
The Natural Death Centre
Established in 1991, The Natural Death Centre is a social, entrepreneurial, educational charity that gives free, impartial advice on all aspects of dying, bereavement and consumer rights.
​
They give support on family-organised and environmentally friendly funerals, and run the Association of Natural Burial Grounds. Although green in outlook, we promote choice and education in all aspects of funerals.
​
The Natural Death Centre and the Association of Natural Burial Grounds are both managed by Rosie Inman-Cook, supported by the board of trustees who all work within a variety of professions concerned with death or dying.
Poppy's Funeral
Poppy is a funeral directors in based in London, who writes with a lot of clarity and compassion about death, dying and funerals.