AtaLoss, the bereavement signposting and community support charity, has won a fourth award in less than two years. This award is their second Care Award with UK Business Awards, this time for their The Bereavement Journey® community support programme, relaunched last year and already in 385 locations across the UK.
AtaLoss has grown exponentially over the past few months following seed funding from a private benefactor who saw the potential of The Bereavement Journey, and the charity has recently agreed a partnership with the Parish Trust to extend the programme further across Wales.
The Bereavement Journey is a 7 sessioned programme of films and facilitated discussion offered by Churches and Christians for their communities, with the support and training of AtaLoss.
Says Yvonne Tulloch, CEO of AtaLoss
“This award recognises how The Bereavement Journey is meeting a national need. It has always been effective in helping people bereaved in any circumstance but since we updated the programme to help people process past as well as current losses it has been spreading rapidly with outstanding results. With death having been taboo for such a long time, we’ve lost the art of supporting the grief of those around us and relied too much on the specialists. This programme is bringing back community support, training and equipping volunteers in churches to reach out in a structured and safe way to their communities. It’s packaged and easy to deliver, and wonderfully, the optional session on faith questions at the end is drawing people to faith and into church.”
The Bereavement Journey seeks to address the national problem of unsupported and unresolved grief following decades of death denial and bereavement support neglect. This need was identified by the UK Commission on Bereavement in September 2022, which called for more bereavement support provision, highlighting the role of faith communities.
Yvonne continues: “Although there is a decline in interest in Church involvement in funerals, Church of England research following the pandemic showed that 90%+ of the public are open to churches supporting them with grief, – and Hope Together’s Talking Jesus research showed that a life event is the biggest influence currently in adults coming to faith. The bereavement Journey proves this interest, with churches reporting the majority of people coming from outside Church. At a time when the Church’s national reputation is at an all-time low, this is good news for the public and the Church.”
Yvonne Tulloch, CEO of AtaLoss or Katy Tutt, General Manager, The Bereavement Journey are available for interview.
For media enquiries contact: press@ataloss.org