About Us

About Us

Community Education in Death Awareness & Resources (CEDAR) was created to help people understand, accept and respond to death appropriately within their families, workplaces, neighbourhoods and communities. Whether or not you are bereaved, talking about death and loss to one another does not have to be difficult, uncomfortable or frightening. Once you learn how, it can be rewarding and fulfilling. CEDAR is here to help you do just that.

We have two purposes at CEDAR: The first is to help everyone, young or old, to learn how to talk about death, dying and loss in compassionate and supporting ways. Approached in the right way, talking about a loss or pending death can help promote healthy relationships and minimise distress. The second is to help professionals expand their general and specialist knowledge around the topics of death, grief and bereavement in a variety of social and cultural circumstances, whether speaking to a child, young person or adult.

Explore our Thinking Differently pages to discover how people from other cultures and communities think about death; or look at the variety of programmes CEDAR has on offer such as our Good Grief and Life Lessons programmes for young people and adults or our Death Educationclasses for professionals and those working in the public sector who want to expand their knowledge. Don’t forget to check out our Green Leaf symbol and pass-it-on.

What we do

Community Education in Death Awareness & Resources (CEDAR) is an educational organisation dedicated to discussions about death, dying, and funerary and bereavement practices. This includes delivering classes on the social and cultural aspects of death and how this inevitable event can affect an individual, family and community in positive as well as negative ways. The purpose of our classes, chronicles/blogs, consultancy and resources is to help you explore the positive and negative ways in which we talk about death or avoid talking about death and why. The goal is fourfold:

1. To raise awareness of that which is inevitable;
2. To help someone prepare for death no matter how far into the future it may be;
3. To increase one’s confidence to respond appropriately to others who are suffering from a personal loss; and
4. To help people adjust to life after a loved one dies. Our educational programmes include issues around long-term terminal illness, sudden and traumatic death (such as suicide, homicide and accidental). We also look at pet loss and permanent separation from a loved one who is still alive.

Our Resources pages include discussions around belief systems, rituals, and ethnic differences in grief and bereavement, among other ideas. We also suggest some books you may find interesting and beneficial depending on whether you are a professional working directly with bereaved or dying individuals or a concerned neighbour who wants to be supportive of a friend.

We aim to explore some of the many and varied ways we as humans attempt to understand one of our greatest mysteries—what is death? We hope you get something from this site you find useful and pass-it-on to someone you love. We are a not-for-profit community interest company here to help you understand, accept and respond to death, grief and loss.

We can help you:

  • Understand that talking about death with someone you care about can be very rewarding
  • Recognise learning about death from other people and cultures around the world can be fascinating and useful

  • Realise that what you say and do after someone has had a loss is important to their well-being

  • Acknowledge that death is inevitable in everyone’s life, so the more you know, the better prepared you will be when it happens to someone you know and love or when you reach the end of life. We have a variety of ways to help you learn about death that are intriguing and worthwhile. Take a look at our:

  • Good Grief/Green Leaf Project
  • Life Lessons for Young People
  • Classes on Death Education 

We also have some great information on our Resources pages, such as Thinking Differently about Death, that include some fascinating and poignant stories from people in all walks of life and book reviews to help you get additional information and helpful stories. Read them and pass-it-on.

We have put a lot of thought into creating this website, which is growing every day, but we need you to make it what it should be. So please contact us and tell us what you want to know, what we can do to improve the website for you and what classes you would like us to offer online or in the community. We will do our bes

The CEDAR Team

CEDAR is made up of a team of volunteers, instructors, advisors and supporters who believe it is important to get the communication we have around death, dying and bereavement right. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment can harm lives; but saying the right thing at the right time can make a world of positive difference.

Our Supporters

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CEDAR  Education
CEDAR  Education  is  dedicated  to  teaching everyone  how  to  understand,  accept  and  respond to  death,  dying  and  loss  in  healthy  and appropriate  ways  with  clients,  patients,  students, and  in  personal  relationships.

CEDAR Education is proud to have won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service