About Us

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

The Chattanooga Death Collective unites the region’s leading death doulas, home funeral guides, funeral professionals, end of life specialists, and grief workers into a powerful shared vision: to make Chattanooga a national epicenter for death literacy, community-based care, and transformative end-of-life experiences.

Through collaborative education, public events, peer mentorship, and collective action, we’re reviving community deathcare and giving people the tools to reclaim agency in death and dying. Whether you're preparing, grieving, curious, or called to serve, we’re your guild. Join us in building a death-literate future.

Our Story

An Unexpected Gathering, Rooted in Purpose

We didn’t set out to build a collective.

We were each doing the work in our own spaces—without knowing that the others were out there in the same city, passionately building too.

What brought us together wasn’t a grand vision or a long-term plan. It was coffee. A late night text thread. A conversation that lingered past closing time.

A moment of recognition: You do this too. You care about this the same way I do.

It was happenstance—but not coincidence.

We began to meet. To compare notes. To dream bigger. It became clear that what we needed wasn’t just community for the dying—it was community for ourselves, for death workers, for those who hold the heavy things with open hands.

From that, the Chattanooga Death Collective was born.

A collaboration grounded in compassion, curiosity, and courage. A home for workshops, conversations, rituals, and resistance.

A way to remind the world—and each other—that death belongs to all of us.