"Consoling Communities provides support to neighborhoods and families, businesses and faith communities. By renewing community support amid illness and grief, we help to rebuild caring networks of lived compassion."
---- Eileen T. Geller, Director, Consoling Communities
Unaccompanied Illness and Grief
Too many times, in the midst of community, people feel alone in illness, isolated in loss. In days past, when families and communities were much less mobile than today, people lived and died in the midst of a neighborhood and were cared for by an intact community.
Today, in times of duress, it is much more common for extended families to be separated by distance. Thus, when a family member is ill, those who love him or her may live far away, unable to participate in caregiving, except from afar. Many times, that leaves friends, co-workers, neighbors, and members of faith communities to step in and become the hands and feet for those in need.
Faith Communities: How can we help?
The challenge for faith communities is how to effectively minister to the many people who need ongoing illness and grief support, but to do so without burning out staff and volunteers or putting an undue stress on budget. Unfortunately, many faith communities lack either the infrastructure or the trained volunteers to implement an effective outreach ministry.
Both Consoling Communities, and our sister organization Consoling Grace, offer assistance to faith communities who wish to begin or expand a ministry to ill or grieving people and their families. Our programs are intended to serve and support congregants who have been diagnosed with a serious illness or who are grieving the death of a loved one, even if the loved one is in a different city or state (or country).
We realize that every community of faith is different, and that some may already have components of a serious illness or grief outreach ministry in place. Consoling Communities and Consoling Grace respect the genuine diversity of congregation needs and of faith perspectives. We believe that where effective ministry is concerned, 'one size rarely fits all.' This is why each of our programs are designed to be adapted to your specific needs.
We would be happy to provide you with further information on how Consoling Communities or Consoling Grace program components might augment existing ministries with in your faith community and increase effectiveness of your outreach programs. For a listing of program services, please refer to 'Description of Programs'
And to find out more about how to become a Consoling Community or bring Consoling Grace to your community, feel free to email us at info@consolingcommunities.com or info@consolinggrace.com. You may contact either Consoling Communities or Consoling Grace by phone at 206-366-2715.
