Newsletter | January 2025

Dear One,

The New Year is upon us, and I want to share my thoughts on community with you. We started our Collective to unite people, share our gifts, and support one another. Community is vital for fostering connection, support, and shared purpose. It provides us individually with a sense of belonging, emotional safety, and strength in times of need. Within a community, people can share resources, wisdom, and encouragement, creating a collective resilience that helps navigate life's challenges.

A community becomes even more critical in end-of-life care or grief support. It allows people to witness and hold space for one another, reducing feelings of isolation and fostering healing. Shared rituals, storytelling, and communal spaces for grief and gratitude can deepen relationships with others, nature, and oneself.

Our community is a foundation for collective growth, understanding, and transformation. It reminds us that we are not alone and that, by coming together, we can create meaningful change and far-reaching connections.

We are deeply grateful to everyone actively engaged in our Collective this past year. Your contributions are invaluable, and we have cherished celebrating your victories while supporting you on your end-of-life care and education journey. If you are looking for a community where you can share both joy and sorrow, feel supported, and experience a sense of belonging, we wholeheartedly invite you to join us. Here, we lift each other by celebrating achievements, supporting each other through challenges, and creating memories. Join us in a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued. Together, we can make this year fulfilling and transformative.

With love,

Elizabeth

"The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."

Coretta Scott King

♥

Let's Learn!

The Dementia Journey

REGISTRATION CLOSES TODAY!

Learn about positive approaches to people living with dementia and how to work alongside brain changes
Create care plans for families, patients and communities living with dementia

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Befriending Death

February 4 - March 25, 2025

An 8-week course that explores befriending death as a key to a meaningful life. Engage in LIVE Zoom sessions, experiential practices, and reflective exercises to reshape your view of mortality with curiosity, courage, and awareness.

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End-of-Life Doula Training

February 4 - June 24, 2025

Embark on a transformative journey to become an end-of-life doula, embracing death as a sacred part of life. Gain skills in end-of-life coaching, bedside support, and community sharing using the North Star Tool. Our curriculum includes rituals, bereavement, vigils, after-death care, and professional growth.

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Community Spotlight

Meet Jane Anderson! She became a Death Midwife in 2016 and went immediately into getting trained as a hospice volunteer. Since that time, she has done a lot of community education around death & dying and supported clients in their end-of-life journey. Currently, she is the Volunteer Coordinator at Canyon Home Care & Hospice in Denver, Colorado and loves connecting volunteers with their patients.

Canyon Home Care & Hospice is always looking for compassionate individuals to support their hospice patients. If you live in the Denver Metro area and would like to integrate volunteer work into your life, please reach out Jane: JAnderson@canyonhc.com

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult

for each other?" - George Eliot

Extending Our Embrace

Connections in Costa Rica!

It is with much celebration that we were able to host community outreach and death awareness events in San José, Costa Rica!

Death Café at El Rincón de los Milagros

Through collaboration with ESFIM, INELDA, Fundación Elisabeth Kübler-Ross México Centro, and Instituto Cultura de México en Costa Rica, we held free grief workshop and film screening of The Last Ecstatic Days. It was a wonderful time of thought-provoking conversation and shared authenticity and openness. We also facilitated a Death Café and Gathering for Death Doulas, which created a meaningful space for dialogue.

Conversations surrounding death consistently promote profound connections among individuals. We engaged in thoughtful reflections on the experience of loss, the navigation of grief, and the acknowledgment of our shared mortality. The emergence of a robust death care and grief community in Costa Rica serves as a source of inspiration, signaling a potential cultural shift that recognizes grief and death as integral, natural aspects of life.