We would like to let you know that lovely Sarah is leaving Arka after 14 years with us. Sarah has been central to our development and our customer care for all this time, she has helped Cara steer the ARKA ship through the most brilliant (and some pretty hair-raising) times! She will be missed by all of us here and I know that people in our community will miss her as well. We wish Sarah all the best in the future and hope that she will stay in touch with us as we continue to forge forward in the ARKA way.

Pre-paid funerals – Time to say Goodbye

We are asked about pre-paid funeral plans often, and we understand that people commonly want to have everything sorted before their death for peace of mind and to help their families. However, we have decided not to offer further pre-paid funeral plans as in our experience, finding repeatedly they failed both families and us.

We have tried a few different companies over our years and sadly have been unable to find a company offering the support we feel is needed. Our experience is that the management fees are high, the investment gains low, transparency lacking and the benefits fall mainly to the pre-paid companies themselves. We felt ourselves censored by the rules around such plans, unable to speak freely as to what we would consider best for people.

For anyone wanting to pay for their funeral in advance we strongly recommend they simply save or invest the money themselves in the same way they would choose to for any other funds, and rest assured a bank will honour a funeral director’s invoice at the time of need. In addition record your funeral wishes so that family know your hopes and intentions, which will give them both clarity and funds to carry out your funeral.

If you tie up your money in a pre-paid plan you lose money to the management fee, and you lose flexibility as they are normally tied to one funeral director. Should you move or they change, or your wishes change, your new plan may not be accepted on the same terms.

The rules around pre-paid plans have tightened up in recent years which is definitely a step in the right direction, but historically plans were guilty of using funds for reasons not disclosed to plan-holders, or of offering value only if no details were changed at all since the original intentions were set out. Life doesn’t always go to plan, and it is true that often neither does death, and we believe your funds should allow for that.

We are always happy to meet and talk through funeral wishes with anyone wanting to plan their funeral in advance, and can then keep your wishes on record. We make no charge for this, and there is no obligation to carry out your funeral with us. Or you are welcome to simply download our funeral wishes document and use that yourself.

If you already have a pre-paid funeral plan with us, rest assured we will of course fulfil your wishes to the best value possible following all the terms of your plan that we will absolutely still uphold.

 

 

Many of us look to online reviews for advice and recommendations for all sorts of aspects of life, and they can be a useful indicator to families when considering choice of funeral director. For us at ARKA its tricky though, as we don’t like to contact families about giving us a review unless they’ve explicitly offered. We feel it’s best not to contact people we’ve supported unless necessary, as we know they have a lot to deal with following a funeral. So, we’re putting the message out there now that if any of you have worked with us and would be willing to say something online about that experience, we would be so grateful. We are all for sharing experiences and for people to gain information from those who have experienced us for themselves.

If you are happy to leave us a Google review you can do so by opening Google Maps and ensure you are signed in. Once you find Arka Original Funerals, Islingword Road, on the left, scroll down and click “write a review”. In the window that appears, click the stars to give a score. You can also write a review.

If you use Trustpilot then head there – https://www.trustpilot.com/ login and search for ARKA Original Funerals and leave a review. If you need any help with the process, please do feel free to get in touch with us.

Finally, if you ever feel like you would be happy to share your experience of bringing about a funeral with us, maybe with a photo or two and a bit of writing then we would love to share your story on our website and/or our social media. If this sounds like something you might be willing to do, please do get in touch as we would love to share your story in whatever way you are willing. Any photos are particularly appreciated, as a picture ‘is worth a thousand words’ or so they say.

 

 

We wanted to thank everyone for joining us on 10^th November 2023 for our 20 year celebration. We had a wonderful night and it gave us an opportunity to look back over the years, to remember and commemorate with families who have trusted us to look after their loved ones and support them through the years. We all walked through the streets of our community here in Hanover, Brighton with lanterns, banners and photos of loved ones. We were led through the streets by the fabulous Voodoo Love Orchestra, so a big thank you to everyone on the procession, to our community for joining in and their encouraging whoops and cheers! and of course to our band of volunteers who worked hard to keep everyone safe.

When we got to St Lukes Church, we were hosted beautifully by Deacon Julie Newson who offered us the amazingly peaceful and atmospheric St Lukes church. We had wonderful food provided by Tilt and singing by the fabulous Jam Tarts choir led by our very own multi talented and ‘multi hatted’ Li Mills.

We had a really good discussion led by Rehana Rose with Caroline Lucas MP, Hannah Thompson and Jane Fox. We sang, we remembered and we looked at photos. All in all it was an inspiring evening, full of love and memories. One of the main things we hoped to achieve was to have a discussion about community, how we look after each other, how we look after each other when people we love die, how can we help, practically and emotionally. It’s a huge subject and one we will never tire of discussing. We feel so blessed to be located in such an amazing community, we hope that we add to that by providing a good service – and to be perfectly honest it’s not all about us, definitely not, but it was good to celebrate being here, in amongst you all.

In addition to those mentioned above, the evening would not have been as wonderful without the help and support of the following who we are so thankful to:

Helena and Same Sky for the lanterns
Lex Clarke-Kent for photography
Jake of Sussex Willow Coffins for the willow panels
Dagmara Rudkin for our banner
Hein Tang for filming the event

 

 

 

 

ARKA has been involved in your community for 20 years and supported many funerals.

Come join us in an evening of procession, reflection, togetherness and recognition of the journey that we are all taking, in life and death.

We want to say thank you for trusting us at one of the most difficult times in your life.

Come share memories, music, song, food and drink. It will be an interactive experience and we also have speakers including the wonderful Caroline Lucas.

We are encouraging people to make banners, flags with names, words, anything that encapsulates the memory of your loved one to carry on the procession.

There will be a screen at St Lukes, so if you wish to have a photo of the person you are remembering please send us a photo by email.

If you want to come along you are very, very welcome. We look forward to sharing the evening with you, whatever your experience.

It’s a way of saying thank you, a way of being together to commemorate our own journeys through doing this work and learning from and honouring all the amazing people we have encountered through the 20 years.

Please click here to book your free place.

 

Find out more about Direct Cremation through Arka

 

 

 

FUNERAL ARRANGER AND SUPPORT VACANCY

 

Full Time 24 hours per week over 3 days.

Permanent (after passing a 6 month probationary period)

Salary after probation £16,848 (pro rata from a full time salary of £28,080)

Probation salary £15,600 (pro rata from a full time salary of £26,000

Arka Original Funerals is a vibrant, modern funeral directors. We specialise in bespoke, beautiful funerals. Working with a wide range of clients in the Sussex area we support people to make the right choices for them and their friends and family when someone dies. We can arrange and support highly formal religious ceremonies through to the most unique events and direct cremation.

We now need to recruit a part time funeral arranger to support the business in our day to day operations.

We are looking for a self-motivated, confident individual who shares our passion for choice and quality of service. You will need to be calm, respectful and organised. We are looking for someone who has good attention to detail, the person in this role will need to notice the small details that contribute to our high standards of presentation. The role is a hybrid from the traditional role of Funeral Arranger, we would like to employ someone who can support families to arrange funerals but also support practically on the day of the funeral and get involved in the practical day to day operational side of things.  For this reason you will also need to be physically strong (our test would be to lift a 11 stone person up or downstairs on a stretcher with one other person). You will be involved in all practical aspects of our work and for that reason need to be entirely and intrinsically trustworthy and respectful.

The working days will normally be our office opening hours but this can and will vary in this role and you will also be on-call for one week in five (additional payments are made for being on-call and if you are called out). We welcome applications from people with or without previous experience.

Please click here to download the full job description and person specification for further details. If you are interested in applying for this role please send your CV and covering letter to Sarah Clarke-Kent, Arka Original Funerals, 136 Islingword Road, Brighton BN2 9SH or email to sarah@arkafunerals.co.uk.

Closing date Friday 30^th October 2022 5pm. 1^st round interviews are scheduled for Thursday 10^th November 2022.

If you haven’t heard back from us by this date please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful. Thank you for your interest in this role and in Arka Original Funerals.

 

 

 

Three years ago a filmmaker approached us, as well as other funeral directors, to film us as we worked with families whilst supporting them with their funeral arrangements. It was a difficult decision but we felt an important piece of work to be done to enable the public to be more informed and empowered throughout the process of saying goodbye. We would like to say thank you to the families who allowed Rehana Rose to film at such poignant moments and to Rehana herself for putting together such a beautiful piece of work. We are very excited to share with you the trailer for this brand new documentary.

NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW ONLINE:

For more information: www.deadgoodfilm.com and follow on twitter @DeadGoodFilm