Start the conversation about death in your community. Host regular Death Cafes or gatherings with a death education focus in your community. If you are consistent with these events, you will learn more about the death care landscape in your community and find others who are called to the death care space.
 

Find your people and come together. Some of the people you find will already have some skills and experience in pan-death care. Some will be hungry to learn more about death and caring for the dead and dying. Gather your group, set up regular meeting times, make a list of the skills already existent within the group and add a list of skills and knowledge the group wishes to acquire. 
 

Work together to form a vision and a mission statement. Where are the death care needs in your community? How would you like to see your community become stronger when a death occurs? What would you as a group like to do to strengthen the death care response and awareness in your community?
 

Develop a structure for how your group operates and collaborates. Whether you decide to remain an individually operating collective or to become a Home Funeral Alliance chapter, or form your own company (non-profit or for profit), it is helpful to come to a written agreement about how you will operate, communicate and nurture a cooperative culture within your group, so the communities you serve know what to expect from you. 
 

Pull it all together with a “business plan” style document that lays out your plan, the existing landscape, how you will fill the gaps, and hold the members of your group accountable to the mission. 
 

Mentoring: Members who have a skill to pass on and/or experience caring for people across the pan-death process, can buddy up with those needing more hands-on experience. Mentors can also share the information they have expertise in and/or stories of their experiences with the group, strengthening the corps.
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Make your presence known in your community. Host a regular Death related community event (Death cafe, book club, movie nights, death over drafts, etC). Holding space for regular community events that involve talking about death (like a death cafe) is the first step, and the most effective way to find people who are answering a similar call to death care. It is important to commit to consistently scheduled times and locations for these events. Promote them enough to make sure people know about them. Don’t worry if the attendance numbers are low at first, just keep doing it. 
 

• Venues:  local libraries, ecumenical spaces, neutral community spaces, third places - if you choose a local cafe or restaurant, be aware of ambient sound levels and restrictions on bringing in food or beverages from outside. 
   

• Topics for Death Talk discussions:

  • ​What happens when we die? 

  • Who are you going to call?

  • Why would my friends and family want to see and spend time with my body once I’m dead?

  • Why is death education important?

  • How do I make sure my wishes are met after I die?

  • What is involved in after-death care? 

  • What are the options in my area for final disposition?
     

​Before you dive into the presentation or the topic of focus, invite people to share their stories of what brought them there. Everyone has a story with death - whether their own or that of another. Storytelling is an important element in building trust and strengthening a sense of community. You will find that in your regular events, people will show up for different reasons, with different skills and backgrounds, and bring intersectional knowledge to deathcare. Each is valuable.
 

Collect your people. In the course of hosting regular death-friendly events, you will see others who are called to the death care space. Talk to them about starting a Community Deathcare group. 
 

Start meeting as a group and develop a collective plan
 

Mentor each other based on existing knowledge and grow your skills collectively. 
 

Research as needed for more info about navigating family-led or community-sourced funerals. Use the Home Funeral Alliance as a resource.
 

Decide which actions to take or services to offer your community
 

Develop a structure of operation for your group. Will you be a loose collaborative/collective or a tight-knit corps/team? Or both? At this point it is helpful to create a business plan. You can choose to become a nonprofit or remain as a collective, but whichever you choose, develop a structure, mission, vision, services/products, operational SOPs, etc. 
 

Go out into the community. Talk to hospitals and hospices, law enforcement, religious leaders, intentional communities, and administrative entities. The Home Funeral Alliance can provide audience tailored powerpoint presentations and training through our Speakers Bureau. Contact infor@homefuneralalliance.org for more information.