Goodbye 2016 and Hello 2017

We come to the end of 2016 with mixed feelings. The two-year extension we were so pleased to announce in our End of Year 5 Report has now been rescinded by our funders, Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). They are facing budget cuts, like a lot of other sectors, and are reviewing all of their services and the projects they fund. At the moment, we are safe until March 2017, but are anxiously waiting to hear the outcome of the review in the new year.

Rachael McMeacock, Project Manager of The Bucket Project, receiving her 5 year service award

The positive news is we are still moving forwards with the work of Compassionate Cities/Communities and are leading a task and finish group to develop this initiative. This could prove all the more important with the cuts facing health and social care services, where we will need the community to step in to support those that are dying, their families and carers as well as the bereaved. The Telegraph recently printed a story about a similar initiative, which you can read here. 

As part of this work, we have been compiling a list of end of life and bereavement organisations across Liverpool as well as collecting case studies to help others plan and prepare for end of life and death. If you have a story to share, we’d love to hear it. Read some of the stories we have collected so far here.

Both the Helper Service and Our Time Liverpool, a time banking project, are involved with the task and finish group. They have been sharing their expertise and best practice models to help develop the direction of this work. We also have a great mix of people from a range of backgrounds who bring a wealth of personal and professional experience to the group, and we thank them all for their contributions. 

Image taken from Nasir & Habib's Helper story

We hope to have established firm foundations for a Compassionate Liverpool before the potential end of The Bucket Project. If you would like to get involved or support Liverpool in getting this status, please get in touch.

You can find out more about Compassionate Communities, Compassionate Cities, Marie Curie’s Helper Service and Our Time Liverpool by clicking the highlighted text.

We would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We hope that 2017 brings us good news and the opportunity to continue working with the people of Liverpool. Look after each other, be kind and take care.

 Image taken from Desktop Nexus

Photograph Appeal

 

The Bucket Project will be touring their Day of the Dead Celebration around Liverpool and would like you to contribute a photo of your late loved one. Add to our altar of touching pictures and memories and ensure your loved one is remembered.

 

We want to encourage people to share their happy memories of departed loved ones and remember them for the person they were. We shouldn’t be afraid to remember the good times after someone close to us dies, we should cherish the time we did have with them.

 

Our Day of the Dead Celebrations provide a comfortable space in a social setting where people we have loved and lost can be discussed freely. Participant have said others can block conversations about those who have died, for fear of being morbid or depressing. When we gather to celebrate lives that have passed, it is with a feeling of peace and nostalgia blanketed in heart-warming memories.

 

The Day of the Dead altars are colourful and bright, decorated with paper flowers and patterned skulls. You can design your own frame or send us your picture and we’ll frame it for you. We do ask that you also send us the person’s name and a little bit about them to go on the back of the frame. To find out when our next events take place, become a member of The Bucket Project and receive regular updates, by simply sending us your email address.

 

A touching photograph brought to our November
Day of the Dead Celebration

A tribute written on the frame

If you would like to make a contribution to our Day of the Dead altar, you can email your photographs and stories to rachael.mckindley@mariecurie.org.uk. Alternatively you can post, or drop off, a copy of your photo with text, to:

 

The Bucket Project
Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool
Speke Road
Woolton
Liverpool
L25 8QA

 

Please do not send us original photographs as we may not be able to return them to you.