The Co-op has announced a new partnership with Cruse Bereavement Support in a bid to help people talk about death and grief more openly as the nation continues to emerge from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The partnership aims to promote “useful” conversations to “empower” people in local communities to provide everyday bereavement support to those who have experienced a bereavement.
Funded by Co-op members through the Co-op’s Community Partnership Fund, the campaign launches with a suite of bite-size resources featuring Cruse experts and people in the community, which reportedly address issues such as understanding, normalising and identifying the signs of grief and knowing how the community can provide support.
The resources will be freely available for anyone to access across the UK at Co-op’s online community centre.
Additionally, later this year, the partnership will roll out bereavement support projects across all four home nations. Local Cruse colleagues will work with local communities to offer face-to-face workshops on how to support people with grief and will provide knowledge on how and when to signpost them to more formal support.
Andy Langford, clinical director at Cruse Bereavement Support, said: “Our research clearly tells us that people don’t always know what to say to someone experiencing grief and feel, in some cases, it’s better to do nothing than risk causing upset.
“This exciting partnership with Co-op will not only help educate people in communities on the importance of good grief support, but will also offer practical ways to help people through some of the most painful times in their life.”
Sam Tyrer, managing director of Co-op Funeralcare, said: “In partnership with Cruse, we are now looking forward to helping our local communities understand how to provide more targeted bereavement support when needed. Cruse does such incredible work to help the bereaved and together we want to ensure that nobody has to deal with grief alone.”
