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The ICCM Journal | Winter 2021 | V89 No. 4
grief cafe provides valuable support to hampshire community A free grief café has been providing valuable support and connections to local residents in Hampshire, after it opened last month.
The Good Grief Café at GreenAcres Heatherley Wood, in partnership with The Good Grief Trust
The Good Grief Café is held at award-winning cemetery and ceremonial park, GreenAcres Heatherley Wood, and has been launched in partnership with leading bereavement charity, The Good Grief Trust. Following an unprecedented 18 months when people from all walks of life have been affected by loss, a recent survey from GreenAcres found that nearly a third (29%) of people in the South East have discussed death and their funeral preferences more frequently with loved ones compared to before the coronavirus pandemic - highlighting the importance of enabling open conversations about grief and end of life. Designed to offer an umbrella of support to people in Hampshire, the Good Grief Café takes place on the first Saturday of every month and is run by Good Grief Trust volunteers who have all been bereaved themselves, alongside trained members of the team from GreenAcres, to connect and signpost people to services across the region and help them find a way forward. Commenting on the success of the café, Rebecca Pointeau, part of the support team at GreenAcres Heatherley Wood, said: “It is already clear that families and our surrounding community are having a really positive experience from this initiative. “At our last Café, we were able to introduce three young widows to each other, all about a year apart in their grief journey. They have since met up and gone for drinks. Bringing people together and watching them bond and support each other through their experiences is what we have hoped to do at the Cafés so it’s great that this has already been possible so early on.” Andy Tait, CEO at GreenAcres, commented: “Our recent survey findings highlighted that nearly half (44%) of people in the South East talk to those close to them about death, which is encouraging to hear. We’re
