Evermore

Evermore launched a nationwide campaign pilot championing "Bereavement Leave for All." The pilot engaged more than 950 volunteers representing all fifty states and focused on educating employers about the importance of adopting voluntary bereavement leave policies that provide support to grieving employees and their families. Volunteers advanced bereavement leave policies from a local Moose Lodge in Mississippi to large multinational corporations. During the campaign Evermore and its volunteers collected data from subject matter experts built partnerships liaised with key informants launched surveys with partners including one featured in Fast Company and hosted roundtable discussions. One volunteer and her son met with President Biden to share her story. In addition Evermore built and led a coalition of partners to advance and subsequently secure paid bereavement leave with President Biden's domestic policy agenda the American Families Plan. Although bereavement leave remained absent from national paid leave policy conversations Evermore secured paid bereavement leave for the first time in the U.S. House of Representatives initial Build Back Better BBB bill. While paid bereavement leave was stripped out of BBB in subsequent iterations its inclusion in the bill helped to materially advance the notion that people should not be fired immediately following a loved one's death as it is legally acceptable in the Family Medical Leave Act today.

To facilitate and inform future policymaking and national investments as well as develop an evidenced-based bereavement care response system Evermore secured two bereavement-related provisions to the U.S. budget package the only bill Congress passes annually. For the second consecutive year Evermore secured joint explanatory language that encouraged the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to examine bereavement's wide-reaching impacts in people living in America today. The second budget provision encouraged a budget increase for the CDC's Office of Surveillance Epidemiology and Laboratory Services Division of Behavioral Health to collect bereavement prevalence and incidence data via its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey BRFSS. BRFSS is the nation's premier survey tool for collecting data. Adding bereavement exposure to BRFSS would provide key demographic data and trends by race and geography resulting in a better understanding of the scope of the problem and informing future policymaking and program priorities and investments. The BRFSS module was modeled after a pilot conducted in Georgia prior to the COVID-19 epidemic. Her work found that 45 percent of Georgia BRFSS respondents were bereaved in the previous two years. African American adults are at particular risk with 58 percent reporting a loss. Those in their prime working years are affected with 48 percent of adults ages 35-64 experiencing a loss. Preliminary evidence indicates that bereavement exposure may undermine the capacity to work; 53 percent of those newly out of work had experienced a family death. While Evermore worked with CDC to garner their support and CDC received approval from the Office of Management & Budget a division of The White House.

Evermore in collaboration with researchers from The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Southern California developed the first report of its kind to examine the current and historical trends in childhood bereavement found it is an epidemic hiding in plain sight. Additionally the report outlines the consequences of federal lawmakers philanthropists and other public figures prioritizing support only for children who have lost a parent to COVID-19 including plans being circulated by lawmakers today. Importantly the report found that upwards of 95 percent of parentally bereaved children are at risk of being left behind should this targeted approach be enacted. America's Forgotten Orphans found at www.evermore.org provides analysis and statistics that to date have not been brought to the fore as well as a national policy agenda to address this urgent crisis unfolding across the United States. Key findings from the report include: 1 Every day 850 children in the United States experience the death of a parent. More than 2.2 million children under the age of eighteen in the United States have experienced the death of a parent accounting for three percent of the nation's 72 million children 2 In 2021 childhood bereavement reached a 20-year high due to the United States concurrency of mortality epidemics 3 In 2020 and 2021 childhood bereavement rose in every state in the nation and across every racial and ethnic group and 4 Since 2000 Indigenous children are becoming parentally bereaved at a higher rate than every other racial or ethnic group reaching an all-time high of 2.2 times the national rate in 2021. The report offered a policy roadmap that was shared with legislators and policymakers. Several media outlets covered Evermore's efforts.