NATIONAL HOME FUNERAL ALLIANCE
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"Home funerals empower families and friends to begin the beautiful journey of mending the tear in the fabric of their community that is caused when someone they love dies."
-Zenith Virago

Pandemic Resources for Families Facing End Of Life

We hope these resources are helpful to those of you caring for the dying, the dead or those struggling with grief.
We will continue to update this information as recommendations change and new resources become available.
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Time and Presence: the gifts of home funeral

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Photo courtesy of Olivia Bareham, Sacred Crossings
Empowering Families
If you are seeking the vital information you need to care for your own after death, the NHFA is here for you. Our directories will help you find those in service to guide you, from celebrants to home funeral guides to funeral professionals who will partner with you. We also provide all the tools you will need to conduct a home funeral on your own.
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Photo courtesy of Olivia Bareham, Sacred Crossings
Supporting Home Funeral Guides
A rapidly growing number of well-trained home funeral guides find a home here at the NHFA where we provide the latest information and opportunities to hone their skills. Many of our books, resources, conferences, and other activities are designed with home funeral guides in mind, to support you in this deeply heart-centered work. 
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Photo courtesy of Donna Belk, Beyond Hospice
Educating the Public
The mission of the NHFA is to educate and empower families and communities to care for their own dead. We seek to educate all who seek to know more about this time honored tradition. Whether looking for practical guidance or to read about others' personal stories, how to locate your state laws or learn how you can change one, we can help.
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A Path Home - A podcast from the NHFA

​On this podcast we’ll be focusing on reclaiming our innate right to care for our own loved ones at death in natural, and often, environmentally friendly ways. We’ll demystify the tasks related to after death care through hearing stories from people who have ventured into culturally unfamiliar territory and cared for their own deceased loved ones at home, chose a natural burial or both.
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BECOME A MEMBER

Becoming a member is free and provides many benefits, including access to cutting-edge information and resources about home funerals.
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Why Home Funerals?

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Photo courtesy of Donna Belk, Beyond Hospice
Reviving a Family Tradition
Despite the rise in professional death care, it is and has always been legal in every state for families to care for their own loved ones at home from death to final disposition. Until the Civil War, funerals were family, church, and community affairs. The family washed and laid out the body, dressed or draped it, often with the help of a birth midwife and church members. Today there is renewed interest in reclaiming this right and privilege in ways that bring meaning and comfort to all.
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Photo courtesy of Amy Cunningham, Fitting Tribute Funeral Services
The Value of Home Funerals
Home funerals invite family, friends, and community into an authentic and healing after-death care experience in a safe and familiar place, with care performed by loving hands. Families choosing home funerals express gratitude for the intimacy, connection, and sense of purpose that results from this organic and timeless practice. Taking the time out of our busy schedules to truly tend to the lives of those around us and be present to the loss begins the journey to healing.
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Photo courtesy of Jerrigrace Lyons, Final Passages
Home Funeral Guides
Though families are entirely in charge of their own home funerals, sometimes family members feel more confident enlisting the assistance of someone who has firsthand knowledge of  the processes that are required. Home funeral guides are first and foremost educators, teaching the family how to prepare paperwork, care for the body, find related professionals, including funeral directors if desired, all with the purpose of meeting the families' unique needs and goals.
TESTIMONIALS

How We See Home Funerals

​​"Home funerals are about taking time to absorb, to be part of a process that is intimate and authentic, to build community around profound loss. They are about responsibility and constitutional family rights and defining and strengthening where death lives in this culture."

Lee Webster, New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy, NHFA President

"Engaging hands and hearts, home funerals empower families and communities through their grief." ​

Char Barrett, A Sacred Moment, NHFA Founder and President

"Being able to set your own tempo, and choose where you want to be physically goes a long way to helping a family assimilate the changes that have occurred, and to treat their dead loved one with as much respect and concern as they are able. A home funeral allows and encourages this."

Donna Belk, Beyond Hospice and NHFA Founder

"No one can better tend to our departed than those who have known and loved them."

Elizabeth Knox, Crossings: Caring For Our Own at Death, NHFA Founder and President
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The NHFA is a nonprofit 501c3 organization committed to supporting home funeral education. The NHFA does not offer certification opportunities. Membership in the NHFA and participation in its activities does not constitute endorsement of any kind.
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  • Home
  • Directory
  • Resources
    • State Requirements
    • Podcast
  • About
    • Home Funerals
  • Join
  • Donate
  • Participate