CARING FOR FAMILIES & CARING FOR YOURSELF
The Client
The Funeral Service Foundation began in 1945 as an organization dedicated to improving the funeral profession and deathcare services through the effective stewardship of charitable donations from leaders, funeral professionals, businesses, and organizations in the funeral service community. The Foundation has been recognized as the charitable arm of the National Funeral Directors Association Donors since 1997 and continues to help the NFDA in their mission to support funeral professionals. The Foundation seeks to provide meaningful, impactful resources and programs to help funeral professionals lift up grieving communities and offers scholarships and professional development to empower funeral service professionals and their careers.
THE REQUEST
The Foundation reached out to Ocreative to help design and print a much-needed workbook to help funeral service professionals better manage their professional, mental, and emotional stress. The Foundation team explained that professionals already had a hard time finding ways to manage stress at any time, let alone during the pandemic. They started by working with Alan D. Woldfelt, PdD to create the content for an interactive workbook and then asked Ocreative to organize the information, add graphics, and develop a layout that would help readers digest the content more easily.
THE STRATEGY
Ocreative had just completed a brand refresh for the Foundation when they made this request, making this workbook the perfect opportunity to put their new branding in action. Our in-house copyeditor proofread the material and worked with the Foundation to improve readability. Next, our design team reviewed the information and developed a space-planning layout to ensure balance between content and imagery. After approval, we created custom icons that aligned with their brand aesthetics and curated a series of images that would emphasize the content. We worked through the suggested exercises in the material to get a better understanding of how much workspace users would need and used that information to create a fully interactive workbook.
THE OUTCOME
The final resource helps funeral service professionals explore effective self-care techniques specially designed to help maintain a healthy work/life balance and to prevent burnout. By working through this handbook, professionals can evaluate their experiences, thoughts, and feelings; manage stress more effectively; navigate a successful path to self-care; and uncover a deeper sense of self-understanding. This resource and a corresponding poster are available for free through the Foundation eStore and have helped hundreds of funeral service professionals throughout the pandemic manage stress and provide the comfort families need to work through their grief.
