*This transcript is produced using transcription software and reviewed for quality. Despite our best efforts, some passages may be incomplete or contain errors due to audio quality or software limitations.*
Carol Cone:
I’m Carol Cone and welcome to Purpose 360, the podcast that unlocks the power of purpose to ignite business and social impact.
You know, I’ve spent my career studying corporate purpose—purpose, philanthropy, sustainability—and some of the programs I admire most are the ones that don’t simply launch, make an impact, and move on. They are the ones that stay. They are the ones with ongoing learning. They evolve, and over time they become part of the fabric of a company and the communities it serves. That’s exactly what New York Life Foundation has done with its commitment to childhood bereavement. For nearly two decades, the foundation has worked to ensure that grieving children and families don’t have to navigate loss alone.
And today that commitment has reached an extraordinary milestone: more than $100 million invested in childhood bereavement support. But as you’ll hear, the real story isn’t the dollar amount. It’s what New York Life has learned and built along the way. My guest is my dear friend Heather Nesle, president of the New York Life Foundation and Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. We talk about why childhood bereavement is more pervasive than many realize: that one in eleven children experience the death of a parent or sibling by age eighteen, and how New York Life, through its extensive employee engagement, as well as partnering with schools, workplaces, and healthcare professionals—they’re helping those locations and individuals become more grief-sensitive. It’s a subject that we all have to deal with, but we don’t know how.
Heather also gives us an early look at a very special new project coming later this month. The Golden Sweater Project that will be launched soon invites all of us to celebrate the memories of those we’ve lost by sharing special objects, songs, recipes, and other things to keep those connections alive.
And for my colleagues in corporate purpose and philanthropy, there is so much to learn here about sustained impact: finding that issue that is authentically connected to your business, investing in research, getting a baseline, building the data, the benchmarks, engaging employees on an ongoing basis, building coalitions, inviting others in to understand the issue, to grow the issue, and continuing to evolve the work over time—keeping it fresh, keeping it authentic, keeping it constant.
So welcome back to the show, Heather.
Heather Nesle:
Thank you so much for having me.
Carol Cone:
So Heather, how long have you been at New York Life and heading up the foundation?
Heather Nesle:
I’ve been here just over a dozen years.
Carol Cone:
Look at that. So that’s a good amount of time. And so today we’re going to discuss a significant milestone. The company has reached over a hundred million dollars in one of its signature initiatives. And we’re going to talk about that because it’s not the number, the dollars, it’s the impact. So let’s just talk about the subject of grief. I want to start with you personally. What has changed you in really being so immersed in this subject?
Heather Nesle:
You know, it maybe sounds a little bit simple, but it’s just how pervasive this issue is, how many people not only are affected by death, but who want to actually really talk about it and aren’t often able to do that. And so, you know, we talk about raising awareness about bereavement support. And it sounds a little silly. I mean, death has obviously been with us forever and will continue to be. But, you know, as a society in the US, we are pretty closed off to speaking about it.
But what we find is that when we give people opportunity to hear about this topic, they want to talk about it and they want to share their own stories. They want to learn how to help people. And so it’s really motivating, I think, when you immerse yourself in this issue and you understand how many people want to talk about it and how helpful it is to talk about it.
Carol Cone:
And it’s fascinating that you talk about the numbers because it used to be one in twelve, I guess, youth who under the age of eighteen would be impacted. But I saw the number is now one in eleven.
Heather Nesle:
That’s right.
Carol Cone:
So the numbers are even changing.
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, and actually when, you know, so we helped to start the childhood bereavement estimation model, which is the statistic that you’re citing. And over the time since we’ve done that, which has been gosh around seven, eight years it’s gone from actually one in fourteen to one in eleven. And that statistic varies state by state. You know, some states are doing a bit better. Others are actually, you know, as low as one in seven.
Carol Cone:
And I’m curious, besides the fact that we’re more closed off about it, what else have you really learned over the past dozen years? That when you started out you didn’t know and now it’s like right in front of you on a daily basis.
Heather Nesle:
There are a ton of learnings that I can tell you. I mean, we’ll probably get into it a bit more later in the conversation, but I think one shocking statistic to me is children who are eligible to receive social security benefits. Most children are, because their parents and guardians likely paid into Social Security. Less than half actually receive them.
Carol Cone:
Interesting.
Heather Nesle:
And, you know, I’m often struck when we talk to people about this issue, when you think about how often we spend planning, you know, bridal showers and baby showers, we’re planning baby shower, you know, for our one of our own teammates right now. And how little we spend talking about how to help people when they come back after facing the loss of a loved one, which, you know, obviously can be as impactful, if not more than getting married, you know, or something like that. And so, you know, I think there are lots of these little discoveries, especially when we look at different systems and how they are or are not set up to support grieving children and adults.
Carol Cone:
You’re doing grief-sensitive schools and workplace. I’d love you to talk about each one of those. And how, you know, did one start sooner than later? How do you get them to work in terms of a symphony versus a cacophony?
Heather Nesle:
Yep. Yeah, I think a great place to start is with the schools initiative that we worked on. So, you know, a little over a dozen years ago, we had done a survey with the American Federation of Teachers. And we asked teachers, you know, a bunch of questions about grief in the classroom. And I think the stunning, really gaping chasm that came from that survey was that 93% of teachers agreed that bereavement in the classroom was a major issue. You know, they had children in their classroom who were grieving.
Carol Cone:
Ah, that’s huge
Heather Nesle:
But only 7% told us that they had ever received any kind of training or education on how to handle that issue. And so clearly that was a huge gap. And we felt like, bam, here is something that we could really put some resources and time into and hopefully start to chip away at.
And so because, again, this issue affects everybody, we were able to actually align 10 of the largest K through 12 education organizations and form the Coalition to Support Grieving Students. And so New York Life Foundation, along with the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, were the leading co-founders. But we were joined by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, school superintendents, school psychologists. You know, really everybody that has a hand in the day, you know, for a K through 12 student, came to the table and said, let’s sit down and cross-endorse a set of resources that schools can use across the board. Because we don’t, it’s not just about teachers, it’s about administrators, it’s about the bus driver, the cafeteria worker. Everybody is there as a potential role model and mentor and helpful, you know, ear for a child during the school day.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, well, I love the way you said the bus driver, the cafeteria. You’re absolutely right. You’re creating this incredible support system. So a child or youth doesn’t feel alone and silenced.
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, and so I think you know that the data again helped us to identify a clear need. And so we set to work and we put together a resource. It’s called grievingstudents.org. By the way, those ten groups have now been joined by over a hundred as members of the coalition, but the same ten groups get together every year two to three times a year. Representatives from all of those groups has been going on for like twelve, thirteen years now. And we add new resources, we, you know, make sure that everybody’s comfortable and is endorsing. And I think that’s been really helpful in getting this work into schools because anybody that you talk to in a school is likely a member of one of these organizations and there’s a comfort in knowing that this organization I’m a part of has endorsed, you know, these resources.
And so, you know, we started then right after going to conferences, you know, speaking about the resource, and that was getting some traction, but it wasn’t really trickling down, you know, to the school level. And so we said, hey, you know, we’ve got 12,000 employees, we’ve got 12,000 agents here at New York Life all across the country and every zip code, let’s use them. And so we created our own program called the Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative, what we refer to as GSSI. And what we do is we train our people to become grief ambassadors. They’re not grief experts. But what they go into the school with is the resources and they explain what’s there for the school, you know, how they could leverage those resources, some of the things that they should be looking at. And then if the school just agrees to strive to become more grief sensitive, the foundation will give them a grant. And I think even more importantly, they become part of our now 8,000 plus strong, you know, group of schools and youth serving organizations that not just receive that initial grant, but you know, four times a year receive additional resources and grant information from the New York Life Foundation.
And we do annual surveys. We’ve got great rates of, you know, filling out our surveys and we get continual suggestions and input. And so we know that it’s working. And then, you know, a few years ago, we actually went back to the AFT and we decided to do another survey. We asked some of the same questions. And what we found was from that 7% statistic that we had heard twelve years ago, that now went up to 15%. Still low, you know, we would love it to get it to 100%. But we like to think we had a hand to play in doubling that number over the time that these resources have been available to schools. And so we’ll continue to do that and we’ll continue to survey and make sure that we reach as many schools as we possibly can.
We’ve opened the program to any youth serving nonprofit. So that means YMCAs, boys and girls clubs, you know, sports teams. Anybody who is going to be around children who could offer that support, we want them to leverage these resources and be able to get some monetary support, you know, to educate and continue to make sure that they’re supporting children in the right way.
Carol Cone:
Amazing. That is so, so smart. I am curious. I’m sure you’ve heard about your agents who have gone into these schools to be ambassadors. Do you have one story you can share, you know, how they feel about it, how it’s touched them?
Heather Nesle:
Oh yeah, I mean, this is our most popular program. And I think it really speaks again to this connection of this issue for New York life. I mean, especially our agents, right? Our agents ideally are supposed to be hand delivering, you know, checks and money, and they certainly are connecting with beneficiaries when somebody dies. They’re often one of the first people that folks are talking to, you know, when they’re just freshly and newly bereaved. And so it’s really important for them to understand how to speak to somebody.
We have an agent down in our Dallas general office. And he was one of the first to really get trained and embrace the program. He got into a couple schools in Dallas, you know, and did the presentation. Then he got another principal called in because a principal told that principal, et cetera. Then all of a sudden the superintendent of the Dallas Public School System, which is a very large public school system, asks him to come in and speak and he says, I want every single school in the Dallas public school system to receive this training. So he did it.
And so, you know, we have stories like that across the country. You know, our agents are so connected to their community that they often already know the superintendents, and they’re trusted.
Carol Cone:
That’s so powerful. Interestingly though, you said that, you know, you went back to the AFT, you did your research, you went from maybe 7% to what, 15%, but there’s still that huge gap. You said your desire is to get to 100%. Why do you feel we’re lagging so much? Why are we so bad at bereavement and grief?
Heather Nesle:
I think it’s an uncomfortable topic. You know, people are often very nervous about saying the wrong thing. And so they say nothing, which actually is the wrong thing. You know, I mean, even though we have this tip card that says what to say and what not to say, you know, my own belief is that if you’re coming from, you know, a place of good intention where you’re trying to be supportive. There aren’t that many wrong things to say. There are some, but you know, it’s really just about being there for people, letting them know that you’re there to listen. You know, providing them with tangible support, but also intangible support and then not forgetting, you know, understanding that bereavement is not, you know, on a fixed line, and so after the first year it doesn’t go away, and so, just, you know, trying to do your best to check in with people, making sure they understand they’re supported. You know, we have a program that we’ll talk about, I’m sure, for workplace bereavement.
Carol Cone:
Yeah, I’d love to go there.
Heather Nesle:
Right. It’s like if I’m a manager and I know that, you know, somebody who reported to me lost their father in August last year, maybe putting a little note on my calendar every year to just highlight that that’s a time I should be checking in with them and asking them how they’re doing, right? Because just some very small show of support can go such a long way. You know, people don’t want to forget that person. They don’t want other people to forget them. And so just, you know, having a conversation, asking them, tell me about that person, you know, tell me what your father was like can be so meaningful. And so, you know, I think those are some of the ways that we can get past the stigma.
Carol Cone:
And how are you, as you work with AFT and all your coalition to get into schools, how are you working to penetrate the workplace?
Heather Nesle:
So, you know, we looked once we had some success with GSSI, we sort of said, you know, this is a model that we should really look at in other places. And we’ve done a few different things. So we’ve, you know, we’ve been working with Yale on a program for healthcare workers on how to educate them on how to speak to families about death and bereavement. So that’s something that we’ve been working on. But, you know, when we think about where people spend their time, you know, school, kids spend so much time during the week in school. So it’s an obvious place to concentrate. But we as adults spend so much of our time at work.
And people, you know, experience grief, you know, across different dimensions. But really, the issues are the same, right? You don’t want to feel isolated. You need to be able to communicate. You need to be able to share your feelings. And so we looked at, you know, what could we do in the workplace that could maybe be similar to GSSI in terms of how we, you know, promote the resources.
And so we developed a free training program essentially, a voluntary training tool. Like you would take, you know, anti-harassment training, for managers, HR professionals, peers, and then bereaved individuals themselves. And it’s, you know, self-taught. You can go at your own pace. You don’t have to do every single, you know, segment. But really it’s all about, okay, let’s say I’m a manager and somebody requests bereavement leave. At New York Life, you automatically get an email that says, you know, this person requested bereavement leave. Please go to these resources and educate yourself on how you can support them when they come back to the workplace. And as a manager, there’s a lot of things that you can do.
Carol Cone:
That’s so powerful
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, I mean, and again, it’s not a lot of what we recommend doesn’t have a financial implication. You know, there are plenty of things that you can implement if you’re a smaller organization and you can’t afford to give people maybe more days off, et cetera. You know, again, we talked about some of the things just checking in a year later. But if I’m a manager, you know, I can help by asking the person, when you come back: do you want people to ask you about this, or would you prefer that they don’t ask you about it? And then you can become that conduit for the employee so that they at least have an expectation, you know, when they come back, of what it’s going to be like. Obviously, you can look at their schedules, their travel, other things, and try to, you know, make some changes as they, you know, sort of assimilate back into work. It’s important to understand the resources that your company offers and be able to actually send people to the right place. You know, one of the things we hear a lot from people at work is like: they’re generally aware that there are some resources available to them, but they have no idea where to find them or where to start.
So as HR professionals, for example, making sure that all of your HR team knows where to find this training, where to find other benefits, you know, from the EAP, et cetera, and maybe put them all in one place. So similar to what we do when you go on, you know, maternity or paternity leave. Like really looking at bereavement as something like that. This is a significant event that really, really demands attention of companies to make sure that they’re supporting their employees in the right way. You know, we always talk about being able to bring your whole self to work. This is a big part of it, right? People are grieving. It doesn’t end in the ten days that they were able to take off or whatever it was. And so, again, I think people want to support their colleagues.
You know, it’s not that they are insensitive to it. They just don’t know really where to start. And so that’s what this training is all about: helping them get started and understanding some very specific things they can do to offer that support.
Carol Cone:
And I know that you’ve done research with youth to ask them what they need for support. I’m curious, have you done any research in the workplace at all with adults about what sort of support they need or has somebody else done it and you’ve kind of leveraged it?
Heather Nesle:
The last two years we’ve asked people questions about the workplace and, you know, we found – I think it’s not really surprising – some of the things that we found. You know, 93% of employed adults say that they’d be proud to work for a company that was committed to supporting folks who are bereaved. 91% acknowledge that, you know, a loved one’s death is a significant and major life event that’s just as important as getting married or becoming a parent. I think interestingly, 77% of employed adults surveyed said that their company’s bereavement policy would be an important consideration when looking for a new job. And then 66%, yeah, said that they had actually experienced the death of a loved one while working. So if you think about that, that’s, you know, more than two-thirds of the working population that has experienced the death of somebody while they’re working.
So again, like we saw with the CBEM, the pervasiveness is there, the interest and desire to be supported and to support somebody else is there. And so we, you know, we have that. There’s also some statistics that show, you know, the major economic impact of lack of productivity or loss of productivity when somebody comes back to work and isn’t properly supported. And there’s also research to show that if not properly supported, you know, retention is very low and, you know, it can affect the reputation of your company.
Carol Cone:
Absolutely. So smart. So let’s now turn to the youngest amongst us, you’ve been working with Sesame.
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, we’ve been working with Sesame for well over a decade. So it’s one of our most popular resources and one of their most popular resources. At one point they told us, you know, on their website that the grief section received the second most views of any section only behind teeth, which I thought was interesting.
So I’m not sure if that’s still true, but, you know, it’s obviously something that comes up a lot. And in that same state of grief report, you know, we asked parents about how they felt about this cohort, this youngest grievers, you know, age five and under. And, you know, 86% of parents believe that those younger than five are the most forgotten grievers.
You know, I think people just assume that they’re too young to understand. But we always say, if you are old enough to love, you are old enough to grieve. And we certainly know anybody who’s been around a three-year-old recently that they are full of love.
And so, you know, this is a cohort we don’t want to forget about. And it’s special, you know, it’s different in how you speak to young children ’cause obviously they don’t have the capacity to understand some of the more complicated ideas around death, but they can still understand what it means to miss and love and lose somebody. And so it’s important that we have these resources. I was actually lucky enough to go to a filming of Sesame Street a few weeks ago because we are updating some of those resources with Elmo. And so those will be available shortly.
Carol Cone:
You have another new initiative called Coaching the Future. Which is again an innovation on your part. Can you explain to our listeners what that’s about and why you went in that direction to add to be additive to your ecosystem?
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, so, you know, the foundation has been around for nearly 50 years. Actually we just surpassed half a billion dollars in funding at the foundation, you know, writ large, which is exciting. And we’ve always had a focus, you know, in an area around education and supporting young people. And so we said, you know, is there another issue that we could tackle? You know, maybe it’s not gonna be as perfect as bereavement, but that would have the same kind of closeness and connection to the mission of the organization.
And, you know, we consider our financial advisors to be coaches. They are life coaches, they’re helping people plan their legacy, you know, plan for retirement and really aligning sort of their life goals with, you know, their financial goals. And so we use that language quite a bit. And then our folks, our agents and our employees, are our actual coaches. We know this from our own volunteer programs and how they use, you know, our volunteer grants, et cetera. And so, you know, when we sort of announced that we were going to do this, we did a survey and we had 3,600 people answer the survey telling us that they had either coached before or were currently coaching and how could they get involved?
And so, you know, there’s been some palpable excitement about entering this space. It’s not something that a lot of financial services firms are focused on outside of maybe sponsoring, you know, leagues and teams. And, you know, when we look at what we wanted to focus on, we sort of said we want to focus on what we focus on every day, which is making coaches the best possible coaches they can be. And, you know, there’s a lot of research that you can read about sports in the United States now and how it’s become very monetized and, you know, kids are dropping out, you know, in middle school because it’s too competitive, there’s too much of a focus on winning. And so, you know, we really said like, what could we do to make sure that kids are having a really positive experience as they’re going through sports, as they’re going through other, you know, youth development activities? And how do we make sure that those coaches and mentors who are volunteering their time and really want to do right by these kids have the right tools to do that? And so that was really the genesis of coaching the future. And we’ve started with four key partners in three different areas. And then we’re going to build upon that, you know, as we as we learn more, similar to what we did in the bereavement space. For now, we are working on On the Field Coaching, so supporting sports coaches, but with positive youth development.
So not necessarily the soccer skills, but the skills in developing humans. And then Off the Field Coaching, so similarly for mentors and coaches that are working in other areas outside of sports. And then All Abilities Coaching. So making sure that, you know, every child has the ability to participate and that the coaches and mentors supporting them have the additional skill set they need to properly support them.
Carol Cone:
And do you integrate any of your grief knowledge or support into the coaching curriculum?
Heather Nesle:
We do, and you know, you’d be surprised how often the two kind of overlap. We’ll talk, I think, in a little bit about an initiative that we’re planning for November to kind of you know celebrate, but also elevate the conversation around grief. But we find that there are a lot of athletes that will talk about experiencing the death of a loved one and using sports as, you know, sort of a way through or a way to, you know, get back to day-to-day life. Similarly, other activities can serve as a balm for children, you know, a way to get back to day-to-day if they’re on the debate team, you know, or in the film club. These are the kinds of things that can often help them not just get back to day-to-day, but also learn to communicate their feelings a bit.
Carol Cone:
Great. What’s coming up in November?
Heather Nesle:
So, in November, we’re introducing a special program called the Golden Sweater Project. And so, as part of one of the great things that we’ve done over the last, you know, few years in the bereavement space, is we’ve actually created our own book series called Kai’s Journey. And it follows a young boy named Kai who’s lost his father. And the first book in the series is called The Golden Sweater. And Kai, you know, obviously upset about losing his dad. And he goes into the basement and he finds this old golden sweater that his father used to wear all the time. And he puts it on, and it later starts to bring him back. It brings him hopefulness, lightness. It allows him to sort of get back into his, you know, regular routine.
And what we’re asking people to do in November is share their golden sweaters with us. So what are the objects, the songs, the recipes that bring a smile to your face, you know, that bring about really happy memories of the person. And we want them to share it with everybody so that we can sort of all be bathed in, you know, these wonderful stories of the people that still live on in these memories and these objects. And so we’re working with a fantastic ambassador, Trent McDuffie, who is a cornerback for the LA Rams. He lost his brother when he was younger and has a foundation now that supports bereaved children. So he’s going to be helping us get the word out. He’s sharing his own golden sweater story. And then we’ll be launching in mid-November to the public and asking them to share their stories with us. Then for every story shared, we’re going to make a donation to a bereavement organization.
And then of course on that microsite, we’ll connect people to resources so that they know how to support, you know, grieving people in their world.
Carol Cone:
Great idea. I love that idea. As we begin to close this down, which I could talk to you for hours and of course that’s why we have you come back so often. What’s your view of philanthropy today? Is it getting smarter? Is it getting lesser? Is it getting, you know, gotta measure more? What’s your view of it? Since you are really, you know, you’re Charlie Award, you know, you’re really very, very, very good at this
Heather Nesle:
I think in a lot of ways corporate philanthropy has evolved, you know, over the last ten years or so. I think there is this idea of trying to be a bit more strategic and aligned with the priorities of the organization. I think a lot of companies are looking at how they can leverage not just dollars, but the skill set of their employees. So I think similar to what we’ve been doing with GSSI, where, you know, not only do we have a skill set of a sales distribution team that know how to speak to people and know how to present, but they also are dealing with the issue of bereavement, you know, day in and day out in what they do. And so you know, I think a lot of corporates are trying to really align that. And part of it is, you know, to help fulfill the mission of the foundation.
But also to excite their workforce, you know, because an engaged workforce is a workforce that’s going to be retained and that’s going to be excited about working for your organization.
Obviously there have been challenges, you know, in the US over the last couple of years with you know, different sort of legislative and other kinds of influences. But I think for a lot of companies where there is this alignment and where they’ve strategically found focus areas, like for us, we haven’t had to really change what we’ve been doing because we were so focused on doing something that made so much sense here and for our company that we’ve been able to continue and stay strong. And so I think that’s ideally what corporate philanthropy is really trying to do. Make an impact, enhance the brand of the organization, and engage, you know, their workforce.
Carol Cone:
And how – very well stated – how can companies become even more courageous in doing this kind of work, doing a kind of systematic approach, data driven, human-driven, employee engaged, the kind of thing, the levels that you’re doing at New York Life.
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, I mean I’d say one thing is really to look inward, you know, and to get more input from your workforce, understanding what they want to do and what they don’t want to do. You know, for some companies, their workforce might say, we want to be able to choose what we want to do. We don’t want to be tied to a focus area. And that’s okay too. You know, you have to look at sort of what your goals are. But for others, there may be themes that emerge. You know, for us, for example, coaching ended up being a theme that engaged a wide array of our folks already. And so being able to support them in the thing that they were already doing was an immediate win for us, you know, and got us a level of buy-in that we probably wouldn’t have had for a different focus area.
Carol Cone:
Yeah. And I’m curious – is that, you know, we’re gonna come back obviously in a couple of years. What do you wish you could accomplish? Is there like a boy—I really wish we could do that—idea? What do you think you’ll talk about in another three to four years?
Heather Nesle:
Well, I think, you know, we want to continue making an impact in schools. We want to expand our workplace program. We’re gonna launch that nationally in 2027. And so we’ll be monitoring and looking at the results there and the impact that we’ve had. And there’s a lot of other things we want to tackle. I mean, we mentioned healthcare, we talked about the youngest grievers. We’re looking at doing something specifically for parents and supporting parents like we have done with the coalition around students and the coalition around, you know, the workplace. So that’s an important area. We have, you know, been looking at colleges and universities and how do we help maybe systemically help colleges put together bereavement policies.
Most colleges have no bereavement policy for how to handle a death of, you know, where a student has a death in their family. So that’s something that we’re interested in. I mean there’s so many areas to tackle really. You know, we actually have been starting to talk to even an international coalition, where they want to learn about what we’re doing here to maybe take it to additional countries. So even though we don’t have a presence necessarily in those countries, we obviously want to be able to be helpful and participate in places where we can, you know, offer a hand. So lots to come, you know, we’re always busy over here. And then the coaching focus will also be increased, you know, as we have more experience there.
Carol Cone:
And so if you could say we have fundamentally, at the next 200 million, we’ve changed the way America’s relationship with grief looks, like what?
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, I think we want people to be more open about grief. We want people to be more comfortable in talking about their own grief, but also in understanding how to support others and in extending that support to others. So I think a more grief-sensitive nation is what we’re looking for. You know, we talked a little bit about the public policy work. That’s something that’s very important to us, making sure that children and families know the benefits that they are, you know, owed, and they get those benefits. But beyond the financial, looking at how government and other, you know, systems and agencies can also support families. So that we can identify who they are and then provide them with the right supports. So I’d say a more grief-sensitive world and a more grief-sensitive country where the networks and the systems are set up to provide the right kind of support.
Carol Cone:
That’s fantastic. So I always love to give the mic back to my guest for anything you want to add or elaborate upon. So it goes back to you, Heather.
Heather Nesle:
Yeah, I’m just gonna pitch our golden sweater project. So the week of November 16th, we’ll be launching a microsite asking people to upload pictures and stories of, you know, the people they’ve lost and the happy memories they have of them. You know, share your person with the world, and I think people will, well, wanna hear those stories and wanna find comfort in other people’s stories. So really excited about that and hopeful that people will participate.
Carol Cone:
That’s wonderful. Well, we will definitely promote the Golden Sweater Project. I think it’s terrific. I’ve learned so much more about being more grief sensitive to my friends and to my colleagues at work and such. So thank you, Heather.
Heather Nesle:
Oh well thank you so much and I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you. I mean you’ve done so much for this field, so I am especially proud to be your friend and to participate in this podcast.
Carol Cone:
This podcast was brought to you by some amazing people, and I’d love to thank them. Anne Hundertmark and Kristin Kenney at Carol Cone ON PURPOSE. Pete Wright and Andy Nelson are our crack production team at TruStory FM, and you are the listener. Please rate and rank us, because we really want to be as high as possible as one of the top business podcasts available, so that we can continue exploring together the importance and the activation of authentic purpose. Thanks so much for listening.
