Newspapers Run Finding
Our Way Series and Last Acts
Partner Networking Call
Finding Our Way Materials
Are Available to You!
Newspapers Across the
Country Are Running Finding
Our Way!
Have You Seen the Paginated
Version?
Coalition Spotlight
The Centering Corporation
Tracking The Activities of
Your Coalition
Last Acts Hosts Partner
Conference Call on Accessing
End-of-Life Care in the
Community
Finding Our Way
Materials Are Available to
You! Finding Our Way
materials are still
available. If you think that
you or your coalition can
distribute some of these
materials at your events,
email us at
steeringcommittees@bballard.com.
Newspapers Across the
Country Are Running Finding
Our Way!
More and more papers around
the country are picking up
the Finding Our Way
series. Over 90 papers
nationwide are running all
or part of the series. This
means that the articles and
their message are reaching
communities in 29 states
with a total circulation of
almost 5.8 million people!
And we are learning of more
and more newspapers carrying
the series each day. We at
Finding Our Way would
like to thank you for the
hard work you did getting
your local papers to commit
to running the series. We
could not have done it
without you – you are the
reason the series is running
in your papers!
Have You Seen the
Paginated Version?
It’s never too late for your
newspaper to come on board.
Remember that the paginated
version of the series will
be available in December.
For a sneak preview of the
first eight articles in
paginated form, go to
www.findingourway.net/downloads.htm
and scroll down to the
section called “Articles.”
You can click on each one to
get a good look at how it’s
laid out, the resources and
sidebars contained within.
We think they look awfully
good and hope you’ll agree.
As we mentioned in our last
newsletter, all 15 articles
will be offered in a series
reprint, available in early
2002.
Coalition Spotlight Shelby, NC
The Shelby Star has
committed to run the entire
series. The local
end-of-life coalition in
Shelby kicked off their
activities around Finding
Our Way by organizing a
time of expression. They
placed boards, markers, and
volunteers in seven sites
around the county to enable
individuals to express their
feelings about end-of-life
care, grief, or as a
memorial for a loved one.
They are planning a “Living
Will Day” in mid-October and
have been promoting times at
local hospitals, senior
centers, hospices, and the
YMCA for people to complete
advance directives. The
group is planning a
community meeting in January
to discuss plans for how to
improve end-of-life care in
the community. They have
printed and distributed over
20,000 brochures that offer
local and national
end-of-life resources
relating to the topics for
each of the fifteen
Finding Our Way
articles. Finally, the
coalition is working to
organize a “for ministers
only” meeting to begin
conversations with
interested pastors about the
faith component of
end-of-life issues.
Merrill, WI
The local EOL coalition in
Merrill provides an
interesting example of what
a coalition did when they
discovered that their local
paper was unwilling to run
the series. To ensure that
their community could learn
about the series in some
way, they convinced the
paper to at least place a
link to the Finding Our
Way website on the
paper’s website so that
individuals could access the
series there.
Tallahassee, FL
Aging with Dignity and the
local coalition in
Tallahassee, FL have gotten
their local paper not only
to run the series, but to
print a companion piece
about Five Wishes as well as
other local interest stories
related to the series. They
serve as a wonderful example
of using the series as
leverage to encourage the
paper to do more!
Centering Corporation
It is hard to believe that
more than a month has passed
since the tragedies of
September 11th. One of the
bright moments in this time
of sorrow has been the
number of organizations and
individuals reaching out to
their communities to offer
their services. This has
been especially true among
those of us in the
end-of-life field. Our
friends at the National
Funeral Director’s
Association have let us know
about one such case. The
Centering Corporation is
North America’s oldest
bereavement resource center.
They have been involved in
the Oklahoma City, Columbine
and TWA flight tragedies.
They will be sending many
thousands of dollars worth
of grief resources to those
affected by the tragedy of
September 11th. These
resources will include books
and videos for children of
all ages, as well as for
adults, families and their
caregivers who are facing
the loss of a loved one or a
crisis due to this tragedy.
If you would like more
information about The
Centering Corporation or
would like to help them in
their efforts you can call
402-553-1200, or email
j1200@aol.com
Tracking the Activities
of Your Coalition
The Finding Our Way
outreach team is interested
in knowing what you and your
coalition are doing around
the newspaper series. You
can help us to track this
information in two ways.
First, you can email us with
a list of the activities you
have planned, including the
dates, locations, and times,
and we will post this
information to the list and
promote your event. Second,
you can complete the
evaluation forms on the
Finding Our Way website to
help us accurately report to
our funders what you are
doing. To complete the
forms, go to
www.findingourway.net/downloads.htm
and download the
Tracking/Evaluation
Materials. Send all
completed forms to Sherri
Roff via e-mail at
roffsl@aol.com
or FAX it to her at
518-626-6094.
Last Acts Hosts
Partner Conference Call on
Accessing End-of-Life Care
in the Community Last Acts will host a
one-hour conference call on
Friday, October 26, 2001,
from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
ET. The call is exclusively
for Last Acts Partners and
features Sylvia McSkimming,
PhD, RN, executive director,
Supportive Care of the
Dying: A Coalition for
Compassionate Care, and
Steven Fawcett, PhD,
director of the KU Work
Group, University of Kansas.
Drs. McSkimming and Fawcett
will discuss community tools
that have been developed and
how these tools can be used
to establish benchmarks, set
the agenda for local
coalitions and provide
important information for
the development of
future services. To register
for the call, send a fax to
312-751-1372 or email
michellew@stewcommltd.com by
Wednesday, October 24,
listing your name,
organization, fax, email,
and phone. An agenda with
the Q&A guidelines will be
circulated to all
participants prior to the
call.
To register on-line for
this call, go to:
www.lastacts.org/scripts
(Please make sure this link
is not broken in your
browser)
