Tree · Port Kembla, Illawarra, NSW
Tender Funerals
Not-for-profit community funerals · families invited back into caring for their dead
Since 2016Works nationallyIllawarra
- community death care
- not-for-profit funerals
- grief
- family-led funerals
- network
Tender is a not-for-profit funeral service that began with a group from the Port Kembla Community Centre in 2009 and opened in a former fire station in Port Kembla in 2016. Families choose how much of the care they take on, from decorating the coffin to preparing their person, and a donor-funded benevolent fund lowers costs for families in hardship. A national support body, Tender Funerals Australia, now backs sites in Port Kembla, Wauchope and Canberra, with more community-led sites in development.
The Port Kembla site has about 12 paid staff and more than 20 volunteers who help with services, gardening, transport and mortuary care. It also runs a yearly memorial picnic, a community choir and a sewing circle, and a registered training arm, RiteSkill, offering a Certificate IV in Funeral Services.