There With Care - Helping Parents of Sick Children

As many of you know, I dedicate a section of my blog to featuring heroes in the community. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many inspiring people and working with so many amazing organizations over the course of my career. One such organization, There With Care, founded by a one-time associate producer of the Harry Potter films - Paula DuPre' Pesman- is doing amazing things for families of sick children. As a nurse, I am honored to share their cause with you. It's a non-profit with so much heart and my hope is that you will be transformed by their story. Maybe you will even be inspired to give even more personally in the New Year! I hope so.

Since 2005, There With Care has supported hundreds of children and families facing critical illness. Services are available for patients fighting cancer, blood disorders, or other life-threatening diseases, as well as critical babies in the neo-natal ICU. Their families receive services based on referrals from social workers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

There With Care's Mission:

There With Care's mission is "to provide a wide range of meaningful and fundamental services to children and families during the critical phase of a medical crisis. We serve families, referred by medical agencies, by building a network of services and people who ease the burden of life's day-to-day obligations with compassion and care."

When a family faces the reality of a sick child, even the simplest daily tasks (paying bills, cooking meals, doing laundry, caring for other siblings) can become overwhelming burdens. For those of us lucky enough to have healthy children, it's hard to imagine. But that's where There With Care steps in, collaborating with hospitals and social workers, to support the entire family during their difficult time. Here are some of the ways that There With Care supports families:

Meal Program: Relieving the financial strains with a delivery of grocery necessities allows a parent to avoid taking an immune compromised child out to the store and prepared meal deliveries let families have much needed time together.

Patient and Sibling Support: Keeping families together so that they are able to support each other by providing babysitting, mentoring and tutoring for patients and siblings.

Transportation Program: Families can be assured that they will never have to miss a treatment due to lack of reliable transportation. There With Care provides rides to and from medical appointments and hospital treatments, school, and activities, as well as financial assistance with fuel.

Home Maintenance Program: Coming home from the hospital an immune compromised child can be frightening. There With Care works alongside businesses in the community to provide housecleaning/industrial disinfection, and other home services.

Baby Essentials Program: The premature arrival of babies with critical illness throws parents into a traumatic situation where they are often displaced and alone in the 24-hour care of their newborn in the NICU.  When they leave the hospital There With Care provides a “Baby Essentials” kit with new/used clothing, books, toys, car seats, strollers, and even cribs.

Hanna Cares: The Hanna Cares Program provides car seats to children of families affected by critical illness through There With Care.

Professional Services Program: There With Care offers accounting, financial, legal, and translation services, to families faced with loss of income and missed deadlines due to treatment so parents are able to be there for their child.

Therapy: Couples counseling, sibling support, art and alternative therapies programs along with family grief counseling are provided to deal with the emotional burden.

IT/Telephone Support Program: There With Care gives computers and telephones to access medical services, resource libraries as well as facilitating young patient’s access to school and their peers.

In just browsing There With Care's Bay Area site, I'm overwhelmed by the heart and strength of this organization. I hope that you will read about them and consider one of the many ways you can join in support of the unsung heroes - parents of sick children - through a donation or by volunteering your time and skills to making their day a little easier.

Let's make this a year of giving! Life’s so much richer that way.

-Barb