Community Education Webinars 2025
Our Community Education programs facilitate constructive conversations in the community about loss, grief and other end-of-life issues.
For information on Community Education, please contact
Leigh Bluestein, leighb@caringmatters.org or 301-990-7927
Beyond Facetime: Video Options for Staying Connected with Loved Ones
​Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 1:00 p.m. ET
​Speaker: Joan Green
Struggling with video calls to keep in touch from a distance? Discover innovative solutions and devices that can make it easier! Joan Green, a speech-language pathologist, technology specialist, and the founder of Innovative Speech Therapy, will share her wealth of knowledge about how to use hidden features on our phones and computers and showcase new solutions that can make video calling easier and more accessible.
Speaker: Joan Green
Joan Green is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and assistive technology specialist with many years of experience helping children and adults who have communication, cognitive, literacy, learning, and executive functioning challenges.
Grief Allies: A Practical Guide for Friends, Family,
Colleagues, & Neighbors of Grieving People
​Monday, April 28, 2025
Speaker: Jenny Lisk​
Do you struggle with what to say to a grieving friend? Put off writing those condolence cards? Want to setup a meal train for a family in crisis, but don’t know how?
Widowed Parent Institute founder Jenny Lisk shares practical tips for Grief Allies: the friends and neighbors who want to be supportive and helpful for the grieving people in their lives.
Lisk’s life was turned upside down when her forty-four-year-old husband, Dennis, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. After living with terminal illness for eight months, he died—leaving her the widowed parents of their two children, ages nine and eleven.
Through this experience and beyond, Lisk learned that Grief Allies can’t do the one thing they most want to do—and what they can do instead.
You’ll leave this presentation with the practical tips, resources, and tools needed to feel prepared to support the grieving people in your life.
Speaker: Jenny Lisk
Jenny Lisk is the founder of the Widowed Parent Institute. She is an award-winning author and widowed mom who is dedicated to helping widowed parents increase their family's well-being. Jenny’s books, Future Widow and Widowed Parents Unite, and her show, The Widowed Parent Podcast, guide the journey of solo parenting after loss.
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Jenny’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, Katie Couric Media, Yahoo Life, ParentMap, and more. She lives in Redmond, Washington, with her two teenagers.
Resources from Jenny Lisk:
Grief Allies info & downloadable handout (free):
Widowed Parent Podcast:
http://widowedparentpodcast.com/
Widowed Parent Institute:
https://widowedparentinstitute.com/
Jenny's author website:
Disaster Preparedness: Simple Steps for
Senior Adults, Individuals with Serious Illness, and Caregivers
Wednesday, February 26, 2025,
Emergencies can happen anytime. Are you ready? Join this webinar to learn practical and easy-to-follow steps to prepare for the unexpected, no matter your age or physical ability. Whether you need to shelter at home or evacuate, we'll guide you through the steps needed to create your personal plan to prepare yourself, your family, and those you care for to face disaster confidently.
In this session, you'll:
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Discover essential disaster preparedness tips tailored for older adults and caregivers
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Learn how to create a personalized plan for you and your loved ones
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Explore a Montgomery County-specific workbook to make planning easier
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Get access to additional resources for ongoing support and planning
Don't wait for an emergency—take action now to ensure you're ready when it matters most.
Speaker: Ed Hagarty, D.Sc., PE, CFM – CaringMatters Volunteer, Retired George Washington University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Federal Emergency Management Agency consultant