AtaLoss’ Community Bereavement Support Programme: The Bereavement Journey®
Winner of the UK Business Awards Care Award 2024 Grief Support Programme 2024
AtaLoss’ community support project, The Bereavement Journey®, offers 7 sessions of films and group support for adults to process the impact of a death, whether recent or long ago. Tried and tested over many years, it is trusted and directed to by GPs, social prescribers, funeral directors and other professionals.
The programme is general, supporting any circumstance of bereavement (including pregnancy/neonatal loss and anticipatory grief) and covers a range of aspects of bereavement, from the varied responses of grief to the practical and social implications. Run by churches for their communities, the programme uniquely offers a final, optional session on faith to support the spiritual impact of bereavement from a Christian perspective. The main material is without faith content, making The Bereavement Journey suitable for everyone.
Updated in September 2023, with the central training and support of AtaLoss, the programme has been growing rapidly, and is now offered in over 400 locations across the UK, including workplaces and hospitals.
AtaLoss also runs The Bereavement Journey online nationally 3 times a year for anyone unable to access a local course or who would prefer to be supported online
To benefit from The Bereavement Journey locally visit our dedicated website here.
For more information about running The Bereavement Journey visit here.
Bereavement Friendly Communities
The Bereavement Journey is part of AtaLoss’ wider programme training and resourcing Bereavement Friendly Churches and Bereavement Friendly Communities, to address the under-provision of community bereavement support in the UK.
Being bereaved can be one of the most difficult times in life, and the grief journey can be long and arduous. Following decades of ‘death denial’ and grief illiteracy, UK society is seldom equipped to support bereavement, leaving bereaved people vulnerable to mental ill-health and other further problems. However, if understanding support is found around them, most people will learn to navigate their loss healthily.
Since churches are in every community and are often connected to bereaved people through funerals and chaplaincy, AtaLoss is equipping churches to be more bereavement friendly through our Loss and Hope project, and to reach out to their communities through our Bereavement Friendly Communities work.
For more information about Bereavement Friendly Churches contact our Head of Church Engagement, Revd Nicky Grey.
For information about our Bereavement Friendly Communities work contact our Deputy CEO, Roger Greene.
Email office@ataloss.org