Good grief

As the first of an ongoing series of pro bono interventions in partnership with Pimp My Cause, the #ogilvychange team - led by Rory Sutherland - has been brave enough to tackle one of the greatest possible challenges.

The loss of a loved one is probably the most traumatic experience that any of us is certain to live through. Yet how many of us are prepared for it to happen or truly know how to help others through such an experience? How many of us would like to do more to help someone who is grieving but don’t know where to begin?
 
When the challenge of bereavement and the loneliness and isolation it causes are viewed at a national scale the implications of the lack of this preparedness are substantial. They can include alcoholism or drug abuse, clinical depression, escalating violence, self-harm, increased absenteeism and many other primary and secondary effects of un-alleviated suffering.

CEDAR CIC is a small social enterprise, which has developed programmes to provide death education to prevent social exclusion by making society as a whole better equipped to deal with death and grieving.

A big obstacle they have faced however is that people often turn away from the subject because it is just too difficult to address. The whole agenda needs to be re-framed to enable people to see that they can prepare, that they can help themselves and perhaps most importantly that they can help each other.

The #ogilvychange team said overcoming this barrier was one of the most challenging briefs they had ever encountered, but through the partnership with Pimp My Cause they have developed a suite of insights and ideas that are already greatly accelerating CEDAR’s development.

The package of initiatives are all positioned around the agenda of 'Good Grief'. This re-frames death education to give people a greater sense of agency over the process, suggesting it is something you can get better at and removing the potentially intimidating connotations of formal education. The goal of the initiatives are to create a new norm that makes death less of a taboo and something people can do more to deal with.

The work is already supporting CEDAR in unlocking new partnerships, accessing new support and reaching new audiences. As a result of this progress they could now benefit from further strategic communications support to help them make the most of their new momentum and the opportunities presented to them by their new partners.

Which is where you could come in.

If you would like to know more about CEDAR, explore the suite of initiatives developed for them by #ogilvychange, or to see how your marketing experience could further help them achieve their goals, please get in touch with Anna Mullenneaux, chief match maker at Pimp My Cause.

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