Grief Ritual Training: skilling up grief workers in Michigan

Hi! We are a collective of people with European ancestry who have experience in embodiment/somatic practice and want to skill up in our capacity to facilitate grief ritual for our communities. We are located in and around so-called Michigan and all have political commitments related to ending cultures of domination and colonization, including white supremacy.

We are hosting a training for Grief Ritual Facilitation for the purpose of skilling up facilitators to hold grief spaces for others.

Through a variety of ritual, cultural, somatic and therapeutic frameworks, trainees will be guided into the principles, practices and considerations for facilitating trauma-informed grief rituals and group process. Trainees will also gain insight into their individual next steps in deepening their grief ritual skills with practices that are in integrity with their own identity, ancestry and community roles and relational responsibilities.

The training is scheduled for Sept 26 - 29, 2024 at the beautiful Neahtawanta Inn. Shauna Janz with Sacred Grief is an incredible ritualist, trainer and facilitator, who will guide us. The training will have a specific focus around supporting people with European ancestry (including mixed race folks) to examine and hold the particularities of grief that come with being descendents of settler colonial people on Turtle Island (more below).

Why this, why here, why now?

Grief work couldn’t be more critical now. We are in the midst of a global polycrisis - losing people and land to genocide, losing whole species at once, and experiencing, too, the threat of loss of our fresh water here in the Great Lakes Watershed.

Humans have grieved collectively for centuries, yet people in the dominant culture where we live have experienced cultural wounding and lost our way with grief.

Grief is a learned skill and requires relationship to heal; relationship to self, to others (human and more-than-human), and to embodied presence.

In our current context folks are not learning the skills of grieving, and are not receiving the opportunities, time, resources, relationships, and practices to support them to grieve in ways that are meaningful and healing.

We grieve to learn from our sorrow, to inspire us to action, justice and life. We grieve to nurture our connection to land and to each other. We grieve so that we may pursue and protect life more courageously together! Grief work is liberation work.

Why European ancestry?

In racial justice work, white folks are often asked to do our “own work”. We see this as not only showing up in protest and in solidarity efforts to build and fight for racial justice, but we also see this in our healing work as well. We believe that it’s important for us to be in direct relationship with the impacts of whiteness (which we have inherited through European ancestry), both in the ways that we have caused or perpetuated harm historically and currently, as well as the ways that whiteness has negatively impacted us. Thus, this training container has a specific focus on engaging with these impacts for the sake of deepening our own personal grief work, which is directly related to how we then facilitate and hold grief. The training is open for anyone with any European ancestry (i.e. including people who are white or multi-racial).

Why are we asking for funding?

The total cost is $12,600 to offer this training for up to 16 people. This includes lodging and meals and facilitation for a three day training, plus pre- and post- facilitated gatherings.

Many of us are small business owners who are already struggling to balance owning a small business and serving our communities. Many of the populations we work with often don't have access to our kinds of services and are not funded/supported by traditional models of care (i.e. health insurance).

We are seeking support from our community to invest in a cohort of place-based grief workers who have a commitment to being able to offer free and low-cost grief ritual spaces as a part of their future practice. We are inviting you to create a pathway for more grief to move and be held well in our community.

Raising $6,000 will bring the tuition amount down significantly for many participants for whom the current cost would be barrier. Participants will be also contributing personal funds for the training.

Breakdown of the budget:

Sponsorship Levels:

$50 pays for one night of lodging for one person

$100 pays for most materials for the weekend (pens, chart paper, etc.)

$250 pays for one lunch or dinner for the whole group

$500 pays for training fees for one person (with a cohort of 15 people)

$800 pays for lodging for the whole group for one night

In turn for your support we want to offer the following gifts as a thank you!

Please know that these gifts are *optional* and that we will follow-up after your donation to see if you're interested in receiving the one that matched your amount.

weeper -- $5-50

Receive a link to our grief tending playlist

griever -- $51 - $100

Receive a 30-min 1:1 grief consult + the gift listed above

wailer -- $101 - $500

You/your group receives first opportunity to register for our first free public grief rituals post-training + all the gifts listed above

keener -- $500+

Option to host a free private grief ritual with newly trained facilitators + all the gifts listed above