One of the most creative parts of the work of the Foundations of Death Care training program is helping the students find a place to begin to put what they are learning, experiencing and anticipating into practice.  Their projects can take different forms and when they start to reflect on why they are taking this training, their creativity comes into focus.

From the Fall 2025 cohort came some personally meaningful and potentially very helpful ideas, such as:

• teaching a workshop for current and future students on holding vigil and teaching family/loved ones to hold vigil as well.
• teaching a workshop for religious communities on the grief work around the dissolution and destruction of ecological system (doula to systems)
• developing training for one of the student’s hospice teams regarding working with patients with dementia with more person-centered focus
• several engaging with death cafes in a variety of settings
• learning how to provide better services to families and friends of those living with the particular grief of suicide

These are just a few of the ideas coming from these amazing students’ hearts and minds.  We in the Iliff Death Care instructional team are grateful for how the students are raising the standard in so many arenas around engaging with loss, death and grief. 

In Peace, Beth Patterson