AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Friday, KXAN anchors Will DuPree and Avery Travis spoke with two leadership members of Evermore, a nonprofit advocacy group that helps bereaved families by providing resources and systemic changes.
Use the video player above to listen to the full discussion.
Joyal Mulheron and Jena Kirkpatrick, both bereaved parents, are a part of the effort.
“People tend to think about loss as something very sad and full of sorrow, but the reality is that there are systems around families, and those systems begin to fail,” said Mulheron, the executive director and founder of Evermore.
“When you begin to look at a population level, you can see that tragedy repeated over and over and over again in multiple families, and so we’re the work we’re doing is systemic and trying to provide better support systems in the aftermath,” Mulheron continued.
Through Evermore, the two said efforts have been made toward advocating for things such as the renewal of bereavement leave for the U.S. armed forces, which currently expires in March 2025, and addressing other issues such as the misallocation of $15 billion in social security benefits for orphaned children.