Community Education
Our Community Education programs facilitate constructive conversations in the community about serious illness, caregiving challenges, end-of-life and grief.
CaringMatters strives to develop community knowledge and skills around serious illness, caregiving challenges, end-of-life and grief-related topics that can be applied to daily life. Our meaningful educational events and discussions help build a caring and compassionate community.
For information on Community Education, please contact
Leigh Bluestein, leighb@caringmatters.org or 301-990-7927
Thank you to our Community Education funding partner!
Upcoming Webinars & Workshops
Free Webinar
Grief Allies: A Practical Guide for Friends, Family, Colleagues, & Neighbors of Grieving People
​Monday, April 28, 2025, 2:00 p.m. ET
Beyond Facetime: Video Options for Staying Connected with Loved Ones
​Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 1:00 p.m. ET
Free Webinar
Grief Allies: A Practical Guide for Friends, Family,
Colleagues, & Neighbors of Grieving People
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Monday, April 28, 2025, 2:00 p.m. ET
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Speaker: Jenny Lisk​
Do you struggle with what to say to a grieving friend? Put off writing those condolence cards? Want to setup a meal train for a family in crisis, but don’t know how?
Widowed Parent Institute founder Jenny Lisk shares practical tips for Grief Allies: the friends and neighbors who want to be supportive and helpful for the grieving people in their lives.
Lisk’s life was turned upside down when her forty-four-year-old husband, Dennis, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. After living with terminal illness for eight months, he died—leaving her the widowed parents of their two children, ages nine and eleven.
Through this experience and beyond, Lisk learned that Grief Allies can’t do the one thing they most want to do—and what they can do instead.
You’ll leave this presentation with the practical tips, resources, and tools needed to feel prepared to support the grieving people in your life.
Speaker: Jenny Lisk
Jenny Lisk is the founder of the Widowed Parent Institute. She is an award-winning author and widowed mom who is dedicated to helping widowed parents increase their family's well-being. Jenny’s books, Future Widow and Widowed Parents Unite, and her show, The Widowed Parent Podcast, guide the journey of solo parenting after loss.
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Jenny’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, Katie Couric Media, Yahoo Life, ParentMap, and more. She lives in Redmond, Washington, with her two teenagers.
Free Webinar
Beyond Facetime: Video Options for Staying Connected with Loved Ones
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Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 1:00 p.m. ET
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Speaker: Joan Green
Struggling with video calls to keep in touch from a distance? Discover innovative solutions and devices that can make it easier! Joan Green, a speech-language pathologist, technology specialist, and the founder of Innovative Speech Therapy, will share her wealth of knowledge about how to use hidden features on our phones and computers and showcase new solutions that can make video calling easier and more accessible.
Speaker: Joan Green
Joan Green is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and assistive technology specialist with many years of experience helping children and adults who have communication, cognitive, literacy, learning, and executive functioning challenges.
Past Community Education Presentations Include:
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Webinar: Disaster Preparedness: Simple Steps for Senior Adults, Individuals with Serious Illness, & Caregivers
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Webinar: Mortality in Popular Culture
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Webinar: Death Cleaning & Decluttering: Why It Matters & How To Do It
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Webinar: Live Well to Die Well
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Webinar: Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Extending Compassion and Whole Person Healing
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Webinar: Cognitive Change: Understanding, Connecting, and Creating Moments of Joy
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Webinar - Prepare for the Inevitable: Financial Planning to Prepare for the Death of a Family Member
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Webinar - Seniors and Social Isolation
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Webinar - Suffocated Grief and Black Youth Coping with Loss
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Webinar - How to Support Grieving People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
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Webinar - Caregiver Stress in Asian American Communities
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Webinar - Providing Inclusive and Affirming Care for the LGBTQ+ Community
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Webinar - Caring for the Caregiver
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Webinar - The End-of-Life Doulas: A Collaborative Approach to End-of-Life Care
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Webinar - Grief Support for the Black Community: Understanding the Culture of Trauma and Developing an Empathy-Driven Mindset
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Webinar: Grief: Support for Yourself and Those You Care About
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Webinar - Grief in the Workplace: Guidance for Employees and Employers
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Webinar - ​Voice Your Choice: Preparing for Health Care Emergencies
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Webinar - Speaking Grief Film Discussion
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Webinar - LGBTQ+ Seriously Ill Seniors: Opportunities for Better Care
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Webinar - Grief and Self-Care in the Time of COVID-19
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Webinar - Supporting Grieving Students After a Death: How We Can Help Them Build Resilience in a Time of Physical Distancing
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Navigating Transitions for Your Loved One's Care
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Nine To Ninety Film Screening & Discussion
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Caregivers' Toolkit: Community Resources for Patients & Families Facing Serious Illness
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Voices of Grief Film Screening & Discussion
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Managing Grief in the Age of 24-Hour News & Social Media