Articles
November 1999
The Director - Features
A Community Service Model
The D'Esopo Resource Center is an inspiring example of community outreach
Do you have a lending library in your funeral home that you feel is under-utilized? Do you invite the community to visit your funeral home for other reasons, such as support-group meetings, but attendance is very low? The problem may be largely because that the funeral home is a place the public often avoids as much as possible.
Learn how a funeral home overcame this problem in A Community Service Model—The D'Esopo Resource Center is an inspiring example of community outreach. D'Esopo Funeral Chapels established the D'Esopo Resource Center for Loss and Transition, which opened on October 1, 1995, and was hailed as the first of its kind in the country. The center includes a lending library and offers support services for those who are grieving the death of a loved one. Support groups often meet there, along with activity and discussion groups and the center also provides a "Grief education and Support Series," which is described in the article.
D'Esopo Funeral Chapels "closing ratio" of preneed sales is almost twice the national average: 95 percent of "presentations" result in closed sales. The firm believes this supports the position that an active, innovative, community service program is a necessary component for establishing trust with consumers, especially when starting a preneed campaign.
The article was written by Karen Carney, the bereavement program director of the D'Esopo Resource Center and Funeral Chapels, 280 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT 06109. Contact her at 860-563-5677, fax 860-563-3475 or e-mail
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