Christian Writing & Speaking with Special Guest Elizabeth Cantu
Christian Writing & Speaking (CWS) with Jacqui Wilson
June 11, 2021
What happens when you come face to face with one of the greatest tragedies of your life again? That's what happened with today's guest Elizabeth Cantu, who had to relive the tragic death of her seventeen-year-old sister because the one who caused her death moved in across the street. For eighteen m…
Christian Writing & Speaking (CWS) with Jacqui Wilson
June 11, 2021
What happens when you come face to face with one of the greatest tragedies of your life again? That's what happened with today's guest Elizabeth Cantu, who had to relive the tragic death of her seventeen-year-old sister because the one who caused her death moved in across the street. For eighteen m…
The NonProfit Podcast Network
Link to Podcast:
Supporting Grief and Loss: The Impact of the Bereavement Network Resources of Sacramento
Link to Podcast:
Supporting Grief and Loss: The Impact of the Bereavement Network Resources of Sacramento
Transcript of Podcast:
Speaker 0: My neighbor recently lost her dog. And for weeks, I would see her and she cry and cry. She never stopped crying. Then one day she said to me, you know, I didn't grieve for my teenage brother who died on motorcycle accident. I didn't grieve for my parents, but now all of this grief is coming up, and it's necessary to take care of yourself and and to take care of things as they happen.
Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the nonprofit podcast network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story in their words to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors. Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations through podcasting.
Thanks to our partners for their support in getting these stories told. SMUD, Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District's shine awards program benefiting nonprofits for energy efficiency, CAPTRUST, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations, and Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Modern life's tasks and projects often prove taxing in so many ways, but possibly none as challenging as the time it takes away from us to grieve when necessary. Grief is universal. We all experience it at some point in time, likely multiple times in a lifetime.
The loss can be significant, but society expects us to move on quickly. Get over it, if you will. Grief can be disenfranchised. It doesn't have to be death or loss of a loved one. It could be divorce, bankruptcy, loss of a job.
And there's a stigma in many communities over anxiety or depression from loss. Today, we can be more isolated. Grief impacts our health if unaddressed. In this episode, you'll learn of a network of support for grief, the bereavement network, and they've been around helping others deal with grief for over forty years. Our guests today have not only experienced grief that motivated them to help others as volunteers for the organization, but they'll share much more about the benefits of the network and its practical application in a world moving ever so rapidly.
Elizabeth Cantu and Suzanne Austin, welcome to the nonprofit podcast network.
Speaker 2: Thank you. It's so good to be here.
Speaker 1: Wonderful to have you. Our topic today is a little different. It's one that we haven't really addressed, but it's really prevalent in life, period. It's a topic of loss and grief, and it's difficult to address, yet it's so necessary to be addressed. I was really surprised to hear how long this organization has been around, but, obviously, grief has been around forever.
So necessary is really an understatement. If you would give us a little history of the bereavement network, I think that would help everybody understand a little bit more. Suzanne?
Speaker 0: I'd be happy to. Yes. The bereavement network resources of Sacramento was established forty one years ago. That's, you know, half my life almost. And the the people that started it were grieving parents, and they were looking for some support.
And in their resources, they didn't find a whole lot in Sacramento. But at about that time, forty one years ago, it was 1984. It was before we had computers where where we could just look things up easily. And so they went and found these sub the founders, the two women found a group, their friends probably, of doctors. We have psychologists, caregivers, and and bereaved people themselves are were on the founding board.
So, when they saw that they didn't have much resource here, they decided to do it themselves, and they became incorporated as a nonprofit in 1984. It was about that time that the peers support groups started to appear. So now there's a group for mothers who have lost their children or spouses have lost. And so they came up with a they gleaned all those things that were happening at that time and put them in a directory. And it was very rudimentary.
The directory was not organized, but the numbers and the dates were there. The people were there. And we've come a long way from that. But, basically, that's that's how we started.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so common. That's how some of these organizations just bubble up as a need presents itself. And to think forty one years ago, I moved here in '85. So just a year after you started and knowing what our digital capacity was back then. I mean, we had cell phones, but we really didn't have the access to resources that we have today to where you can just go and find it.
Yeah. And you still produce a nondigital piece, you know, a a pamphlet of sorts as well as now a robust website with information and resources as well. Let let's continue on on the grief path because grief isn't just death. Grief can be a variety of different losses. It could be the, you know, the loss of a job, the loss of a marriage.
You know, a a family member just moves away to a a child that could be catastrophic if it was a close aunt or uncle or grandparent. Does everything get addressed? How does it get addressed?
Speaker 0: Well, we, make an effort to address many things. But I wanted to tell you why I got on the board initially, and that's because I had been in a an abusive relationship. And after twelve years of marriage, I left the relationship. But when I left, I left my daughter, my church, my friends, my community. I left.
And it was a very difficult time. Even though I wanted to loo leave, the loss was tremendous. I had to rebuild myself, and I was looking for support. And I just slug myself through a way through it.
Speaker 1: The hard way.
Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. So but the other interesting thing is my neighbor recently lost her dog. And for weeks, I would see her and she'd cry and cry. She never stopped crying.
And then one day she said to me, you know, I didn't grieve for my teenage brother who died on motorcycle accident. I didn't grieve for my parents, but now all of this grief is coming up. And and it's necessary to take care of yourself and and to take care of things as they happen.
Speaker 1: And we know that's so much more today than we did back then. You know, the mental health, mental wellness, and it sounds like that pent up grief was just balled up inside of her and the animal, the pet, which is serious for many, many people. It's as close as a human to them, just released all of it.
Speaker 0: Yes. So, you know, as time goes on, as our our culture becomes more open about what what's out there. You know? We now have we have a listing for opioid epidemic, and we have a listing for LGBTQ. And we saw that, you know, we've got to keep up with the times.
We've gotta make this directory bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: Which requires more and more work, and we'll get into that in just a second. Elizabeth, is there a particular geography that the organization serves?
Speaker 2: Yes. There is a particular geography. We serve the Greater Sacramento area, but we also serve the outlining areas Davis, Shiloh County, Amador County, Placer County, El Dorado County, and El Dorado Hills. However, I have this great story that has personally touched me with the bereavement network resource that was beyond our geography, and I wanted to share that story with you. I have two adult children, and my daughter lives in Oregon at the time.
And she had just started a new job, and she called me one night as I was at my desk frantically crying that her fiance had passed away in his sleep, and she had just got word. And I the calling a mother never wants to hear, and I didn't know how I was gonna help her. And, ironically, this directory was sitting on my desk, and I told her, I will do my best to see what I can do to help you. And I and so just just stay put. As I opened the directory, there was the law enforcement chaplain in our directory.
I called them immediately, and they were able to dispatch a fellow colleague in Oregon to my daughter's hotel room within one hour. And it still just gives me chills because that collaboration of networking across, you know, different states was just so profound to me because this was my precious daughter.
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And the chaplain stayed with my daughter until my son was able to get there. And I'll never forget how valuable the organization became to me because it became very personal. And because of that, I'm definitely, you know, serving right now as vice president, but I'll definitely keep serving because that need was met immediately with the resource that we've been working so hard for the last forty one years to create.
Speaker 1: And I'm so sorry to hear that loss of of a fiancee that never even got to the marriage party. I can only imagine the whole family experiencing something like that.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: But the value of almost immediate support. And many of us don't recognize that because we deal with it. You know, we either shove it into a compartment in our brain somewhere where we're not gonna, you know, deal with it or we deny it. You know? That's fine.
I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. When in fact, maybe not so fine. And it's easy to just move on.
But we recognize today the significance of dealing with grief and dealing with issues that have such emotional or mental or even physical trauma that we don't even realize. And, Suzanne, to your story, you know, we've had you know, we've been here in other domestic violence organizations, human trafficking. All of those have this experiential grief, both to the families and to the victim. But I don't know how it gets dealt with. I'm sure there's counseling in many cases, but maybe not so much.
And there's an awareness now that there's an organization that somebody can connect with. Let's talk about collaboration because you said the word with the collaboration between the chaplain here and in Oregon. Who are the people that you collaborate with?
Speaker 2: Well, we work with a village of organizations from our grief share hospices, churches, volunteers. We have professionals. We have people that were recently widowed. It's a gamut of all different walks of life, which makes such a beautiful way to serve because we all have the one mind to help the bereaved.
Speaker 1: And so
Speaker 2: that's a beautiful thing. One of the things that I wanted to share with you is that our funeral homes, we have a major sponsor, East Lawn Cemetery, who helps us print our directories. And each year, they print over 10,000 directories for us free of charge for us to be able to offer those to the churches and all the different entities that need this type of a resource. We also have Dignity Memorial. They are also a wonderful resource.
They have helped us lately. So excited. One of our newest board members is a part of the Dignity Memorial, and I love having the new generation come on board and help us to get the word out and collaborate. It's pretty it's pretty cool. I'm very proud to be part of this organization.
Speaker 1: Well, what's really neat about that, I happened to meet that person, and that's what started this conversation because I Absolutely. This is somebody maybe 30 years old ish. And I thought you're in an industry, in this case, dealing with death. You know, this is people who have passed. I thought it was just so odd, but she was so enthusiastic and really understood, Kayla, thank you, the nature of this beast, so to speak, and her engagement in a completely different space that you wouldn't expect for somebody of that age.
The thing that, we're we keep referring to is it's a pamphlet.
Speaker 0: Mhmm.
Speaker 1: It's and I'm gonna say an old school pamphlet. Most of us understand what that looks like. You go to church and you used to get a bulletin, and it's it's similar to that. But I can see the value because even in our most technically digital world, if we're not looking for it, that doesn't just show up. But if you should happen to go to a memorial service or you go to a church, you see this sitting on the side, you might grab it.
You might say that that appeared there for me for some reason. I'm dealing with something. You can distribute it. You can hand it out to places where you know there's challenges. On some of those nonprofit organizations that deal with people who are experiencing grief, it's they they they don't last thing they wanna do is be digging around, and they're not thinking about it.
And I go on
Speaker 2: Or can they at that point? Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes. Exactly right. So they get this little pamphlet, and it's like, okay. There's that's two blocks from where I live. Or there's a name or a number or an organization that I can reach out to.
How do you find the organizations to contribute? And I by that, I mean, the services, not to pay for it, but to to participate in supporting those who are grieving.
Speaker 2: A wonderful thing that was Suzanne's brainchild is that, you know, Suzanne and I worked very closely as madam VP and president during the pandemic, and she had spoke about, one day, I wanna have a network. I wanna have a network where quarterly we meet with all the professionals and we're face to face, and I said, we're gonna make that happen someday. And I'm so proud to say that it's our one year anniversary where we have been having networking meetings with the professionals every quarter. And so with that being said, we now have these professionals that love to be able to talk with other professionals in law enforcement and the hospitals working with bereaved children to our mortuaries, etcetera, etcetera. And there's such a synergy there that it's so amazing to be able to have this quarterly event now.
And so I am grateful for that because we're thinking of things that we never even thought of. Like, one of the examples at our last board meeting, we had someone that was a person that was talking about the planning for what what is it called? A trust. You know? Having a trust.
And we thought, yes. We need that resource because you it just keeps escalating to a new idea that can be just amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: And now we're forty one years, and we're still growing and evolving, which is so exciting.
Speaker 1: Well, the one thing we know for sure is grief is not going anywhere. It's it's unfortunately gonna be here in some way, shape, or form
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Forever. And, Suzanne, you were saying something as Elizabeth was talking about the organizations, about the schools.
Speaker 0: Yes. I have thought for a long time that that we need to get these directories in the schools because we have a phone service, a refund network resource. We have a call that's a message phone. You leave a message. We call you back.
And how many times have I gotten calls from somebody in the school, a teacher or, you know, principal people? And and they want resources. They want directory. Some recently, a child had brought a gun to school. This is elementary school, and the kids were freaked out.
It turned out he didn't have a gun, but, nevertheless, kids were traumatized. There's so much in the news nowadays about this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 0: So it was actually they she wanted somebody to come and talk to them. And so I went to our directory and called the law enforcement chaplaincy again, and they went off to the school and talked to the kids. So, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: Great great example. Great example Mhmm. Of just the outreach and having the awareness that an organization like this exists. And I know we've had several other organizations that could use your service who have sat in the studio, and I just keep mentioning it. And they're like, we didn't know.
We didn't know there was such an opportunity.
Speaker 0: If you give us those contacts, we'll contact them.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. And I and I think I already have.
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: In in some cases, they they've they've moved through it. You're an all volunteer organization. Correct?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Which makes it really difficult because nobody's getting paid to do any of the back end support yet you have a pamphlet. That pamphlet requires, you know, the digitization. It has to get printed. It has to go somewhere. It has to be dealt with.
It has to be delivered in some way, shape, or form. How are you funded? How does everything work? What kind of budget do you deal with?
Speaker 2: We are a nonprofit funded by our sponsors. And as I said earlier, Isilon is one of our oldest sponsors that's been around, but we also have something recent that we just added to our repertoire, which is the big day of giving. And we are so excited about that, that big day of giving. But just to give you a reference, at one point when I came on board, this directory was 25¢. It was 25¢ nine plus years ago, and we really got creative and thought, well, we need to do some type of bundles.
We need a website. Suzanne and I recruited some graduates at Sac State. They helped us get, online. So we have been moving and shaking for quite some time. But in regards to funding, a lot of our board members actually donate to our budget, but we also have different sponsors that will give us a donation for a bundle of these directories or a presence on our website.
Mhmm. Something new that we're doing, we Suzanne has been working really hard with that. And, Suzanne, do you wanna tell them about the presence on a website for the fundraising?
Speaker 0: Yes. The website is amazing. So I didn't have anything to do with it, but we we have a tab for affiliates. So you can be a part of the bereavement network resources and support us at the same time by advertising what you do. So and and it's so nominal.
I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. But it's only $200 to the end of this year. We're gonna raise it minimally as we go along probably, but it's just a way to get your word out. I always tell people I talk to to tell us something that you do that nobody else does
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 0: And and post it. And so we have gotten a few affiliates that way. And
Speaker 1: Oh, that's great. So that website's actually working for you. You know, what does it cost? How many of these things do you do a year? 10,000, did you say?
Speaker 0: Yeah. 10,000.
Speaker 1: And and what does that cost roughly?
Speaker 0: We don't know. Islaan takes care of it.
Speaker 2: Oh, wonderful. Okay. Right? Isn't that wonderful? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Great. So you don't even have to see it on your p and l and No. And report it.
Speaker 0: Fantastic. Had have a big spot on the back of
Speaker 1: the Sure.
Speaker 0: As they
Speaker 1: as they should.
Speaker 0: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think everybody in Sacramento knows East Lawn.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's historic in in so many ways.
Speaker 0: Say another little plug for East Lawn, and that is they used to be strictly cemetery, but they are really into the mortuary and cemetery now. And I just wanna clarify that.
Speaker 1: As you look at the support that you give in the community each year, how many people do you think you touch? Do you have any idea that come through the network in some way, shape, or form?
Speaker 0: You know, we've touched on a lot of avenues that we we stretch out into and people we touch. It's really hard to get a solid number on that. We publish 10,000 directories a year. We, you know, we get those out. Hospices are certainly a big taker of those, and it makes sense that they would give these directories to people who haven't died yet, to families, but, you know, start to get start to think about this.
And we've talked about the website. The website has a great presence for the directories on the on the website. So you're right. You don't have to have a paper copy. But if you wanna take it home, it's kinda nice to have it in a a little package rather than print it out on the from the Internet.
Speaker 1: Well, especially when you're running around with a situation, whatever that situation may be, this can go travel easily with you. You you may not be able to get to your phone. You may not have an Internet connection. You may be trying to do something as a resource while you're waiting for something. So we all thought paper was gonna go away at some point in time, and I think we use as much of it today as we always have just differently.
Speaker 0: Yes. And so early on, I've been with the organization for twenty years, but not consistently. I took a a hiatus for about nine years. And at the time, I started in in late nineties. We had a telephone service.
We still have that service today. And it's a one more way of getting the word out and and helping people through their situation. Maybe they just want a referral to to opioid. My daughter just died, and and I can give them that, but I also offer to send them the directory if they like to have it or go on. They can get it online certainly too.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break from the conversation with Elizabeth and Suzanne of the bereavement network to learn a little bit about the people who help make this program possible.
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Speaker 4: Hello. This is Scott Thomas with CapTrust in our Sacramento office. I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.
If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, [email protected].
Speaker 1: If we step back for a minute and and and look at a really big picture, We know that grief is real, and most of us are going to experience it at some point in time in our lives, and in many cases, multiple times. What would the organization look like if you didn't have to worry about a budget, if you could really do something grand? What would it look like?
Speaker 2: Wow. I love that question so much because with the nine and a half years that I've been serving, at the time, I was the youngest in the board. And and now here I am, and we have all these other board members that are, you know, from a different generation, and they have amazing ideas. But what I would say, if I could capture what that would look like, I dream of a brick and mortar that we would have a building centrally located where people could walk in something like maybe a Sierra 2 or something that's been established for a long time. A bereaved person could walk in, come into our office, and we would be able to not only help them with finding the resources they need, we would also fund folks that may need help with burial costs or maybe just trying to find relief through acupuncture, have maybe chi gong.
I'm talking I'm a creative, so the creative modality has been my method I've used for my healing process of thirty four years of experiencing grief in my family. So I really believe that it's very important to offer creative outlets like gardening classes, community, etcetera. And one of the things that I'm really excited about is to offer an endowment that would be able to bring others in the future help and resources. You know how much it costs to bury or cremate someone now? It's just unbelievable.
And so that's a crisis.
Speaker 1: We always to think that the cremation was gonna be the inexpensive way, but they found a way now to charge enough for cremation
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: In so many different elements that they bring into the equation that didn't used to exist. Truly. Truly. So, yes, I I do understand.
Speaker 2: So we need we need someone in a scholarship. The last part of this dream that I'm envisioning, which thank you so much for this question, is just the ability to have scholarships for those that are studying the anthology and in the funeral industry. I know that ARC has a program there that they actually offer indigenous service where it's funded by the Sacramento County, and it's through the coroner's office. And it's in our directory where if there is someone that has a challenge with burying their loved one, they can use this service. So that is in our directory, and you can go to our website and get more information on that.
But there's a lot of resources, but the dream is big, but it's that we wanna be able to help another human face to face and have that drive. Kayla, as you mentioned earlier, is thinking of creating a good grief ball next year for those that are in the front line of bereavement and grief. And we're so excited about that. But, you know, the budget's 45,000, so we need to be able to incorporate that in some way. So those are the dreams that we have, Jeff, and I'm looking forward to being around long enough to see it come to fruition.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love those. And and I I really like the idea. Again, because we know this is a human condition. It's not going away if you had an endowment of some sort. That's sustainability for the organization.
You know, it keeps it going in perpetuity for the, you know, the life of the endowment. And if it does well, that's long past our lifetimes, which is which is really important.
Speaker 0: I'd like to add that an endowment would be great for the new area of profession, the death doula. You know, that would be so great if we could get all if we had a big caseload of death doulas that that could minister to go with the family through the death process before they've died, but, you know, anticipatory death, that that kind. And, yeah, I I personally went went through that training myself during COVID, and I didn't want to make a profession of it. I just wanted to be able to be there for people. So
Speaker 1: And is this the death doula, is that different than a hospice nurse per se?
Speaker 0: It's in addition. It doesn't take anything away from hospice. It just helps the family understand what's gonna happen and to be there when they have grief. And, I mean, they're grieving. Mhmm.
And to just be there with them for maybe a month, maybe three months. Who knows? You know?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 0: But yeah. It's just to hold your hand.
Speaker 1: I think that's wonderful to hear that that position is now a taught position. So it's I mean, if we have our community, we have our friends, we have our family, that's who gathers, but they're not trained. Yeah. And and and it works and it has worked, but so much better that it's somebody who is trained to really identify and be able to see certain things so so that that person doesn't fall into either a deeper depression or, you know, substance abuse, whatever the situation may be that is their outlet, and denial being one of those as well. You know, that seems to be, like, almost the acceptable one because nobody sees anything, So everything's fine.
Speaker 0: Can I give you an example of that?
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 0: My father-in-law was on hospice. He was he had several things wrong, but he was failing. His wife, my mother-in-law, called the kids and said, you know, you need to come now if you wanna see your dad. So we all of us go out there, two from Arizona. They live in Arizona and and us from Sacramento.
And we get there, and he's supposed to have morphine around the clock. And they've got it. It's there it's there for the kids to give it to him. They live out in the country too. And the adult children are all standing around in the kitchen, and and the they're debating.
Gee. Do we wanna give it to him? And, you know, well, I don't wanna be responsible for killing him. And and I just had to say, look, you guys, the man is gonna die. He's in a lot of pain.
He's not gonna start walking again.
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 0: You know, do you wanna make him comfortable? Then we need to follow the protocol. And and he did did last, about a week later, but we took shifts. My husband and I took shifts through the night to make sure every four hours he got that medication.
Speaker 1: Mhmm. Well, there's that training. You know, any awareness?
Speaker 0: It was before that.
Speaker 1: Oh, well, then it was just common sense. Yeah. Good for you. Back to today. What is the greatest need of the organization?
Speaker 2: I believe awareness is so important, who we are, where we're at. I I did some outreach for the federal government, and so I have that background. And I really want to partner with the different entities of the government county, you know, city, state, and be able to take this to a whole another level of outreach. And I believe we're doing that by starting here at this podcast and the things of recruiting new members and then networking. But our greatest need is for others to be involved and to volunteer and to donate.
Speaker 1: And I think people need to see the effect and the impact that you're having. You've been around for forty one years, so clearly, there's a value in the service. And Absolutely. As they know that, the more likely they are to recognize not only is there a need, but there's something being fulfilled. You don't last that long if there isn't a positive impact in the community.
And that's For
Speaker 2: sure.
Speaker 1: Is a big plus for what's happening. What's the best way for somebody to find out more about you?
Speaker 0: Listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes. I agree with that. Thank you.
Speaker 2: And then also, you can go to our website, which is griefhelpsacramento.com.
Speaker 1: So it's griefhelpsacramento.com..com.
Speaker 2: Yes. And you can also call our number at (916) 557-5882. If you need us to call you back, we can also mail you a directory. We could chat with you. And then, of course, you can email us as well, which is [email protected].
Speaker 1: Okay. And I'll put all of those in the show notes as well for people to look on their phone and or their computer depending how big Sure.
Speaker 2: And we're on Instagram as well and Facebook. So those are other, you know, social media ways to reach out to us.
Speaker 1: Good. So you're out in all the contemporary venues. Because I can see you've got this disparate audience from senior seniors who obviously experience grief and spouses and people who are aging out at this point in time as well as those who experience grief from a variety of different ways at younger ages. And they're gonna be much more digitally connected and looking for resources digitally. So you have to play in a contemporary world as well as a very traditional staid world as well.
Back back to the people as you were mentioning with even with East Lawn, you know, there's still a lot of burial going on where people bought those plots fifty years ago. Mhmm. And today, most of us don't even think about being put into, you know, a casket in the ground. It's distribute my ashes someplace that I really enjoyed or keep some for family remembrance. But it's it's anything but, you know, a big box in the ground.
So the changing norms are are just really wide spectrums.
Speaker 0: And the environmental consciousness of the world and and the young people are are much more not wanting to put concrete in the guard ground and, you know, big baskets. You know, it's we've we're coming along, I think, to treat the world better.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. Well, in so many ways, chemically as well because it all happens with embalming and Yes. You know, the list goes on and on and on. Well, loss is difficult for any of us, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's a loved one as we've learned.
But providing a resource that helps the general population know there's a place they can get the support is a message that needs to be shared with everyone in so many different ways. And and you guys as an all volunteer group, what a commitment to your all of you. Your your board, your volunteers, everybody that contributes. Thank you for for what you're doing in such a scrappy way. I mean, you're scratching and clawing and and making sure that the information's getting out.
And I really wanna see that facility, you know, centrally located and and see an endowed piece that allows an organization like this to exist, you know, in some semblance of perpetuity. And also connecting you to the other organizations that we speak with that could use the balance of what grief relief could provide for so many of the people that are the impacted people of those organizations. You know, whether it be, Weave or, you know, domestic violence foster youth, you know, that that movement. It's it's in so many places in so many different ways that I I just applaud you for what you're doing, and you're doing it such a hard way that hopefully we'll get to see it become a little bit easier to where there's just greater engagement, acceptance, and use that provides you what you need.
Speaker 2: I love it. Sounds great. And it's definitely takes a village. So thank you.
Speaker 0: Yeah. And, Jeff, you have done a lot for us just to recognize us and have us here is is I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you both. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help.
If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share. If you're a nonprofit with an interest in participating in an episode, you can reach me at [email protected]. Once again, we're grateful for the businesses who have made this program possible. CapTrust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations. You can find them in Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom.
Captrust.com. SMUD shine awards, helping support our nonprofit community with grants for more efficient energy usage. Smud.org forward /shine. And Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Westernhealth.com.
Speaker 0: My neighbor recently lost her dog. And for weeks, I would see her and she cry and cry. She never stopped crying. Then one day she said to me, you know, I didn't grieve for my teenage brother who died on motorcycle accident. I didn't grieve for my parents, but now all of this grief is coming up, and it's necessary to take care of yourself and and to take care of things as they happen.
Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the nonprofit podcast network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story in their words to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors. Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations through podcasting.
Thanks to our partners for their support in getting these stories told. SMUD, Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District's shine awards program benefiting nonprofits for energy efficiency, CAPTRUST, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations, and Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Modern life's tasks and projects often prove taxing in so many ways, but possibly none as challenging as the time it takes away from us to grieve when necessary. Grief is universal. We all experience it at some point in time, likely multiple times in a lifetime.
The loss can be significant, but society expects us to move on quickly. Get over it, if you will. Grief can be disenfranchised. It doesn't have to be death or loss of a loved one. It could be divorce, bankruptcy, loss of a job.
And there's a stigma in many communities over anxiety or depression from loss. Today, we can be more isolated. Grief impacts our health if unaddressed. In this episode, you'll learn of a network of support for grief, the bereavement network, and they've been around helping others deal with grief for over forty years. Our guests today have not only experienced grief that motivated them to help others as volunteers for the organization, but they'll share much more about the benefits of the network and its practical application in a world moving ever so rapidly.
Elizabeth Cantu and Suzanne Austin, welcome to the nonprofit podcast network.
Speaker 2: Thank you. It's so good to be here.
Speaker 1: Wonderful to have you. Our topic today is a little different. It's one that we haven't really addressed, but it's really prevalent in life, period. It's a topic of loss and grief, and it's difficult to address, yet it's so necessary to be addressed. I was really surprised to hear how long this organization has been around, but, obviously, grief has been around forever.
So necessary is really an understatement. If you would give us a little history of the bereavement network, I think that would help everybody understand a little bit more. Suzanne?
Speaker 0: I'd be happy to. Yes. The bereavement network resources of Sacramento was established forty one years ago. That's, you know, half my life almost. And the the people that started it were grieving parents, and they were looking for some support.
And in their resources, they didn't find a whole lot in Sacramento. But at about that time, forty one years ago, it was 1984. It was before we had computers where where we could just look things up easily. And so they went and found these sub the founders, the two women found a group, their friends probably, of doctors. We have psychologists, caregivers, and and bereaved people themselves are were on the founding board.
So, when they saw that they didn't have much resource here, they decided to do it themselves, and they became incorporated as a nonprofit in 1984. It was about that time that the peers support groups started to appear. So now there's a group for mothers who have lost their children or spouses have lost. And so they came up with a they gleaned all those things that were happening at that time and put them in a directory. And it was very rudimentary.
The directory was not organized, but the numbers and the dates were there. The people were there. And we've come a long way from that. But, basically, that's that's how we started.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so common. That's how some of these organizations just bubble up as a need presents itself. And to think forty one years ago, I moved here in '85. So just a year after you started and knowing what our digital capacity was back then. I mean, we had cell phones, but we really didn't have the access to resources that we have today to where you can just go and find it.
Yeah. And you still produce a nondigital piece, you know, a a pamphlet of sorts as well as now a robust website with information and resources as well. Let let's continue on on the grief path because grief isn't just death. Grief can be a variety of different losses. It could be the, you know, the loss of a job, the loss of a marriage.
You know, a a family member just moves away to a a child that could be catastrophic if it was a close aunt or uncle or grandparent. Does everything get addressed? How does it get addressed?
Speaker 0: Well, we, make an effort to address many things. But I wanted to tell you why I got on the board initially, and that's because I had been in a an abusive relationship. And after twelve years of marriage, I left the relationship. But when I left, I left my daughter, my church, my friends, my community. I left.
And it was a very difficult time. Even though I wanted to loo leave, the loss was tremendous. I had to rebuild myself, and I was looking for support. And I just slug myself through a way through it.
Speaker 1: The hard way.
Speaker 0: Yeah. Yeah. So but the other interesting thing is my neighbor recently lost her dog. And for weeks, I would see her and she'd cry and cry. She never stopped crying.
And then one day she said to me, you know, I didn't grieve for my teenage brother who died on motorcycle accident. I didn't grieve for my parents, but now all of this grief is coming up. And and it's necessary to take care of yourself and and to take care of things as they happen.
Speaker 1: And we know that's so much more today than we did back then. You know, the mental health, mental wellness, and it sounds like that pent up grief was just balled up inside of her and the animal, the pet, which is serious for many, many people. It's as close as a human to them, just released all of it.
Speaker 0: Yes. So, you know, as time goes on, as our our culture becomes more open about what what's out there. You know? We now have we have a listing for opioid epidemic, and we have a listing for LGBTQ. And we saw that, you know, we've got to keep up with the times.
We've gotta make this directory bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: Which requires more and more work, and we'll get into that in just a second. Elizabeth, is there a particular geography that the organization serves?
Speaker 2: Yes. There is a particular geography. We serve the Greater Sacramento area, but we also serve the outlining areas Davis, Shiloh County, Amador County, Placer County, El Dorado County, and El Dorado Hills. However, I have this great story that has personally touched me with the bereavement network resource that was beyond our geography, and I wanted to share that story with you. I have two adult children, and my daughter lives in Oregon at the time.
And she had just started a new job, and she called me one night as I was at my desk frantically crying that her fiance had passed away in his sleep, and she had just got word. And I the calling a mother never wants to hear, and I didn't know how I was gonna help her. And, ironically, this directory was sitting on my desk, and I told her, I will do my best to see what I can do to help you. And I and so just just stay put. As I opened the directory, there was the law enforcement chaplain in our directory.
I called them immediately, and they were able to dispatch a fellow colleague in Oregon to my daughter's hotel room within one hour. And it still just gives me chills because that collaboration of networking across, you know, different states was just so profound to me because this was my precious daughter.
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And the chaplain stayed with my daughter until my son was able to get there. And I'll never forget how valuable the organization became to me because it became very personal. And because of that, I'm definitely, you know, serving right now as vice president, but I'll definitely keep serving because that need was met immediately with the resource that we've been working so hard for the last forty one years to create.
Speaker 1: And I'm so sorry to hear that loss of of a fiancee that never even got to the marriage party. I can only imagine the whole family experiencing something like that.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: But the value of almost immediate support. And many of us don't recognize that because we deal with it. You know, we either shove it into a compartment in our brain somewhere where we're not gonna, you know, deal with it or we deny it. You know? That's fine.
I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. When in fact, maybe not so fine. And it's easy to just move on.
But we recognize today the significance of dealing with grief and dealing with issues that have such emotional or mental or even physical trauma that we don't even realize. And, Suzanne, to your story, you know, we've had you know, we've been here in other domestic violence organizations, human trafficking. All of those have this experiential grief, both to the families and to the victim. But I don't know how it gets dealt with. I'm sure there's counseling in many cases, but maybe not so much.
And there's an awareness now that there's an organization that somebody can connect with. Let's talk about collaboration because you said the word with the collaboration between the chaplain here and in Oregon. Who are the people that you collaborate with?
Speaker 2: Well, we work with a village of organizations from our grief share hospices, churches, volunteers. We have professionals. We have people that were recently widowed. It's a gamut of all different walks of life, which makes such a beautiful way to serve because we all have the one mind to help the bereaved.
Speaker 1: And so
Speaker 2: that's a beautiful thing. One of the things that I wanted to share with you is that our funeral homes, we have a major sponsor, East Lawn Cemetery, who helps us print our directories. And each year, they print over 10,000 directories for us free of charge for us to be able to offer those to the churches and all the different entities that need this type of a resource. We also have Dignity Memorial. They are also a wonderful resource.
They have helped us lately. So excited. One of our newest board members is a part of the Dignity Memorial, and I love having the new generation come on board and help us to get the word out and collaborate. It's pretty it's pretty cool. I'm very proud to be part of this organization.
Speaker 1: Well, what's really neat about that, I happened to meet that person, and that's what started this conversation because I Absolutely. This is somebody maybe 30 years old ish. And I thought you're in an industry, in this case, dealing with death. You know, this is people who have passed. I thought it was just so odd, but she was so enthusiastic and really understood, Kayla, thank you, the nature of this beast, so to speak, and her engagement in a completely different space that you wouldn't expect for somebody of that age.
The thing that, we're we keep referring to is it's a pamphlet.
Speaker 0: Mhmm.
Speaker 1: It's and I'm gonna say an old school pamphlet. Most of us understand what that looks like. You go to church and you used to get a bulletin, and it's it's similar to that. But I can see the value because even in our most technically digital world, if we're not looking for it, that doesn't just show up. But if you should happen to go to a memorial service or you go to a church, you see this sitting on the side, you might grab it.
You might say that that appeared there for me for some reason. I'm dealing with something. You can distribute it. You can hand it out to places where you know there's challenges. On some of those nonprofit organizations that deal with people who are experiencing grief, it's they they they don't last thing they wanna do is be digging around, and they're not thinking about it.
And I go on
Speaker 2: Or can they at that point? Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes. Exactly right. So they get this little pamphlet, and it's like, okay. There's that's two blocks from where I live. Or there's a name or a number or an organization that I can reach out to.
How do you find the organizations to contribute? And I by that, I mean, the services, not to pay for it, but to to participate in supporting those who are grieving.
Speaker 2: A wonderful thing that was Suzanne's brainchild is that, you know, Suzanne and I worked very closely as madam VP and president during the pandemic, and she had spoke about, one day, I wanna have a network. I wanna have a network where quarterly we meet with all the professionals and we're face to face, and I said, we're gonna make that happen someday. And I'm so proud to say that it's our one year anniversary where we have been having networking meetings with the professionals every quarter. And so with that being said, we now have these professionals that love to be able to talk with other professionals in law enforcement and the hospitals working with bereaved children to our mortuaries, etcetera, etcetera. And there's such a synergy there that it's so amazing to be able to have this quarterly event now.
And so I am grateful for that because we're thinking of things that we never even thought of. Like, one of the examples at our last board meeting, we had someone that was a person that was talking about the planning for what what is it called? A trust. You know? Having a trust.
And we thought, yes. We need that resource because you it just keeps escalating to a new idea that can be just amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: And now we're forty one years, and we're still growing and evolving, which is so exciting.
Speaker 1: Well, the one thing we know for sure is grief is not going anywhere. It's it's unfortunately gonna be here in some way, shape, or form
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Forever. And, Suzanne, you were saying something as Elizabeth was talking about the organizations, about the schools.
Speaker 0: Yes. I have thought for a long time that that we need to get these directories in the schools because we have a phone service, a refund network resource. We have a call that's a message phone. You leave a message. We call you back.
And how many times have I gotten calls from somebody in the school, a teacher or, you know, principal people? And and they want resources. They want directory. Some recently, a child had brought a gun to school. This is elementary school, and the kids were freaked out.
It turned out he didn't have a gun, but, nevertheless, kids were traumatized. There's so much in the news nowadays about this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 0: So it was actually they she wanted somebody to come and talk to them. And so I went to our directory and called the law enforcement chaplaincy again, and they went off to the school and talked to the kids. So, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: Great great example. Great example Mhmm. Of just the outreach and having the awareness that an organization like this exists. And I know we've had several other organizations that could use your service who have sat in the studio, and I just keep mentioning it. And they're like, we didn't know.
We didn't know there was such an opportunity.
Speaker 0: If you give us those contacts, we'll contact them.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. And I and I think I already have.
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: In in some cases, they they've they've moved through it. You're an all volunteer organization. Correct?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Which makes it really difficult because nobody's getting paid to do any of the back end support yet you have a pamphlet. That pamphlet requires, you know, the digitization. It has to get printed. It has to go somewhere. It has to be dealt with.
It has to be delivered in some way, shape, or form. How are you funded? How does everything work? What kind of budget do you deal with?
Speaker 2: We are a nonprofit funded by our sponsors. And as I said earlier, Isilon is one of our oldest sponsors that's been around, but we also have something recent that we just added to our repertoire, which is the big day of giving. And we are so excited about that, that big day of giving. But just to give you a reference, at one point when I came on board, this directory was 25¢. It was 25¢ nine plus years ago, and we really got creative and thought, well, we need to do some type of bundles.
We need a website. Suzanne and I recruited some graduates at Sac State. They helped us get, online. So we have been moving and shaking for quite some time. But in regards to funding, a lot of our board members actually donate to our budget, but we also have different sponsors that will give us a donation for a bundle of these directories or a presence on our website.
Mhmm. Something new that we're doing, we Suzanne has been working really hard with that. And, Suzanne, do you wanna tell them about the presence on a website for the fundraising?
Speaker 0: Yes. The website is amazing. So I didn't have anything to do with it, but we we have a tab for affiliates. So you can be a part of the bereavement network resources and support us at the same time by advertising what you do. So and and it's so nominal.
I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. But it's only $200 to the end of this year. We're gonna raise it minimally as we go along probably, but it's just a way to get your word out. I always tell people I talk to to tell us something that you do that nobody else does
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 0: And and post it. And so we have gotten a few affiliates that way. And
Speaker 1: Oh, that's great. So that website's actually working for you. You know, what does it cost? How many of these things do you do a year? 10,000, did you say?
Speaker 0: Yeah. 10,000.
Speaker 1: And and what does that cost roughly?
Speaker 0: We don't know. Islaan takes care of it.
Speaker 2: Oh, wonderful. Okay. Right? Isn't that wonderful? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Great. So you don't even have to see it on your p and l and No. And report it.
Speaker 0: Fantastic. Had have a big spot on the back of
Speaker 1: the Sure.
Speaker 0: As they
Speaker 1: as they should.
Speaker 0: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think everybody in Sacramento knows East Lawn.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's historic in in so many ways.
Speaker 0: Say another little plug for East Lawn, and that is they used to be strictly cemetery, but they are really into the mortuary and cemetery now. And I just wanna clarify that.
Speaker 1: As you look at the support that you give in the community each year, how many people do you think you touch? Do you have any idea that come through the network in some way, shape, or form?
Speaker 0: You know, we've touched on a lot of avenues that we we stretch out into and people we touch. It's really hard to get a solid number on that. We publish 10,000 directories a year. We, you know, we get those out. Hospices are certainly a big taker of those, and it makes sense that they would give these directories to people who haven't died yet, to families, but, you know, start to get start to think about this.
And we've talked about the website. The website has a great presence for the directories on the on the website. So you're right. You don't have to have a paper copy. But if you wanna take it home, it's kinda nice to have it in a a little package rather than print it out on the from the Internet.
Speaker 1: Well, especially when you're running around with a situation, whatever that situation may be, this can go travel easily with you. You you may not be able to get to your phone. You may not have an Internet connection. You may be trying to do something as a resource while you're waiting for something. So we all thought paper was gonna go away at some point in time, and I think we use as much of it today as we always have just differently.
Speaker 0: Yes. And so early on, I've been with the organization for twenty years, but not consistently. I took a a hiatus for about nine years. And at the time, I started in in late nineties. We had a telephone service.
We still have that service today. And it's a one more way of getting the word out and and helping people through their situation. Maybe they just want a referral to to opioid. My daughter just died, and and I can give them that, but I also offer to send them the directory if they like to have it or go on. They can get it online certainly too.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break from the conversation with Elizabeth and Suzanne of the bereavement network to learn a little bit about the people who help make this program possible.
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Learn more at smud.org/shine.
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many nonprofit agencies in our community. As a truly local health plan, you'll find individual and family options, employer options, plans for CalPERS, and Medicare Advantage. From medical services to pharmacy, health and wellness support, as well as behavioral health care, Western Health Advantage has a plan that fits what you need. As an employer, for profit or nonprofit business, individual or family, you can find more at westernhealth.com.
Speaker 4: Hello. This is Scott Thomas with CapTrust in our Sacramento office. I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.
If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, [email protected].
Speaker 1: If we step back for a minute and and and look at a really big picture, We know that grief is real, and most of us are going to experience it at some point in time in our lives, and in many cases, multiple times. What would the organization look like if you didn't have to worry about a budget, if you could really do something grand? What would it look like?
Speaker 2: Wow. I love that question so much because with the nine and a half years that I've been serving, at the time, I was the youngest in the board. And and now here I am, and we have all these other board members that are, you know, from a different generation, and they have amazing ideas. But what I would say, if I could capture what that would look like, I dream of a brick and mortar that we would have a building centrally located where people could walk in something like maybe a Sierra 2 or something that's been established for a long time. A bereaved person could walk in, come into our office, and we would be able to not only help them with finding the resources they need, we would also fund folks that may need help with burial costs or maybe just trying to find relief through acupuncture, have maybe chi gong.
I'm talking I'm a creative, so the creative modality has been my method I've used for my healing process of thirty four years of experiencing grief in my family. So I really believe that it's very important to offer creative outlets like gardening classes, community, etcetera. And one of the things that I'm really excited about is to offer an endowment that would be able to bring others in the future help and resources. You know how much it costs to bury or cremate someone now? It's just unbelievable.
And so that's a crisis.
Speaker 1: We always to think that the cremation was gonna be the inexpensive way, but they found a way now to charge enough for cremation
Speaker 0: Yes.
Speaker 1: In so many different elements that they bring into the equation that didn't used to exist. Truly. Truly. So, yes, I I do understand.
Speaker 2: So we need we need someone in a scholarship. The last part of this dream that I'm envisioning, which thank you so much for this question, is just the ability to have scholarships for those that are studying the anthology and in the funeral industry. I know that ARC has a program there that they actually offer indigenous service where it's funded by the Sacramento County, and it's through the coroner's office. And it's in our directory where if there is someone that has a challenge with burying their loved one, they can use this service. So that is in our directory, and you can go to our website and get more information on that.
But there's a lot of resources, but the dream is big, but it's that we wanna be able to help another human face to face and have that drive. Kayla, as you mentioned earlier, is thinking of creating a good grief ball next year for those that are in the front line of bereavement and grief. And we're so excited about that. But, you know, the budget's 45,000, so we need to be able to incorporate that in some way. So those are the dreams that we have, Jeff, and I'm looking forward to being around long enough to see it come to fruition.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love those. And and I I really like the idea. Again, because we know this is a human condition. It's not going away if you had an endowment of some sort. That's sustainability for the organization.
You know, it keeps it going in perpetuity for the, you know, the life of the endowment. And if it does well, that's long past our lifetimes, which is which is really important.
Speaker 0: I'd like to add that an endowment would be great for the new area of profession, the death doula. You know, that would be so great if we could get all if we had a big caseload of death doulas that that could minister to go with the family through the death process before they've died, but, you know, anticipatory death, that that kind. And, yeah, I I personally went went through that training myself during COVID, and I didn't want to make a profession of it. I just wanted to be able to be there for people. So
Speaker 1: And is this the death doula, is that different than a hospice nurse per se?
Speaker 0: It's in addition. It doesn't take anything away from hospice. It just helps the family understand what's gonna happen and to be there when they have grief. And, I mean, they're grieving. Mhmm.
And to just be there with them for maybe a month, maybe three months. Who knows? You know?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 0: But yeah. It's just to hold your hand.
Speaker 1: I think that's wonderful to hear that that position is now a taught position. So it's I mean, if we have our community, we have our friends, we have our family, that's who gathers, but they're not trained. Yeah. And and and it works and it has worked, but so much better that it's somebody who is trained to really identify and be able to see certain things so so that that person doesn't fall into either a deeper depression or, you know, substance abuse, whatever the situation may be that is their outlet, and denial being one of those as well. You know, that seems to be, like, almost the acceptable one because nobody sees anything, So everything's fine.
Speaker 0: Can I give you an example of that?
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 0: My father-in-law was on hospice. He was he had several things wrong, but he was failing. His wife, my mother-in-law, called the kids and said, you know, you need to come now if you wanna see your dad. So we all of us go out there, two from Arizona. They live in Arizona and and us from Sacramento.
And we get there, and he's supposed to have morphine around the clock. And they've got it. It's there it's there for the kids to give it to him. They live out in the country too. And the adult children are all standing around in the kitchen, and and the they're debating.
Gee. Do we wanna give it to him? And, you know, well, I don't wanna be responsible for killing him. And and I just had to say, look, you guys, the man is gonna die. He's in a lot of pain.
He's not gonna start walking again.
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 0: You know, do you wanna make him comfortable? Then we need to follow the protocol. And and he did did last, about a week later, but we took shifts. My husband and I took shifts through the night to make sure every four hours he got that medication.
Speaker 1: Mhmm. Well, there's that training. You know, any awareness?
Speaker 0: It was before that.
Speaker 1: Oh, well, then it was just common sense. Yeah. Good for you. Back to today. What is the greatest need of the organization?
Speaker 2: I believe awareness is so important, who we are, where we're at. I I did some outreach for the federal government, and so I have that background. And I really want to partner with the different entities of the government county, you know, city, state, and be able to take this to a whole another level of outreach. And I believe we're doing that by starting here at this podcast and the things of recruiting new members and then networking. But our greatest need is for others to be involved and to volunteer and to donate.
Speaker 1: And I think people need to see the effect and the impact that you're having. You've been around for forty one years, so clearly, there's a value in the service. And Absolutely. As they know that, the more likely they are to recognize not only is there a need, but there's something being fulfilled. You don't last that long if there isn't a positive impact in the community.
And that's For
Speaker 2: sure.
Speaker 1: Is a big plus for what's happening. What's the best way for somebody to find out more about you?
Speaker 0: Listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes. I agree with that. Thank you.
Speaker 2: And then also, you can go to our website, which is griefhelpsacramento.com.
Speaker 1: So it's griefhelpsacramento.com..com.
Speaker 2: Yes. And you can also call our number at (916) 557-5882. If you need us to call you back, we can also mail you a directory. We could chat with you. And then, of course, you can email us as well, which is [email protected].
Speaker 1: Okay. And I'll put all of those in the show notes as well for people to look on their phone and or their computer depending how big Sure.
Speaker 2: And we're on Instagram as well and Facebook. So those are other, you know, social media ways to reach out to us.
Speaker 1: Good. So you're out in all the contemporary venues. Because I can see you've got this disparate audience from senior seniors who obviously experience grief and spouses and people who are aging out at this point in time as well as those who experience grief from a variety of different ways at younger ages. And they're gonna be much more digitally connected and looking for resources digitally. So you have to play in a contemporary world as well as a very traditional staid world as well.
Back back to the people as you were mentioning with even with East Lawn, you know, there's still a lot of burial going on where people bought those plots fifty years ago. Mhmm. And today, most of us don't even think about being put into, you know, a casket in the ground. It's distribute my ashes someplace that I really enjoyed or keep some for family remembrance. But it's it's anything but, you know, a big box in the ground.
So the changing norms are are just really wide spectrums.
Speaker 0: And the environmental consciousness of the world and and the young people are are much more not wanting to put concrete in the guard ground and, you know, big baskets. You know, it's we've we're coming along, I think, to treat the world better.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. Well, in so many ways, chemically as well because it all happens with embalming and Yes. You know, the list goes on and on and on. Well, loss is difficult for any of us, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's a loved one as we've learned.
But providing a resource that helps the general population know there's a place they can get the support is a message that needs to be shared with everyone in so many different ways. And and you guys as an all volunteer group, what a commitment to your all of you. Your your board, your volunteers, everybody that contributes. Thank you for for what you're doing in such a scrappy way. I mean, you're scratching and clawing and and making sure that the information's getting out.
And I really wanna see that facility, you know, centrally located and and see an endowed piece that allows an organization like this to exist, you know, in some semblance of perpetuity. And also connecting you to the other organizations that we speak with that could use the balance of what grief relief could provide for so many of the people that are the impacted people of those organizations. You know, whether it be, Weave or, you know, domestic violence foster youth, you know, that that movement. It's it's in so many places in so many different ways that I I just applaud you for what you're doing, and you're doing it such a hard way that hopefully we'll get to see it become a little bit easier to where there's just greater engagement, acceptance, and use that provides you what you need.
Speaker 2: I love it. Sounds great. And it's definitely takes a village. So thank you.
Speaker 0: Yeah. And, Jeff, you have done a lot for us just to recognize us and have us here is is I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you both. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help.
If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share. If you're a nonprofit with an interest in participating in an episode, you can reach me at [email protected]. Once again, we're grateful for the businesses who have made this program possible. CapTrust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations. You can find them in Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom.
Captrust.com. SMUD shine awards, helping support our nonprofit community with grants for more efficient energy usage. Smud.org forward /shine. And Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Westernhealth.com.
