Boston Children's Hospital Every Child Fund

In a bedroom on a quiet street in Boston, a child waits. In a crowded village on the outskirts of Kigali, a child waits. For care, for treatment, for hope. Above all, a child waits for the kindness of a stranger.

Someone, like you, who believes that no child should live in pain. No child should struggle to walk, eat, or breathe. No parent should hear “there’s nothing we can do.” With your support, we will save lives.

Your unconditional gift helps us respond to a changing world with one goal: to give all children a healthy future. Every penny goes directly to support Boston Children's lifesaving work for children and families.

Boston Children's is home to the largest research center at a pediatric hospital, treating the sickest children and most complex cases. Our doctors, researchers, nurses and clinicians work tirelessly to find cures. When scientists and caregivers work side-by-side, new discoveries happen daily and more children are saved everywhere.

Boston Children’s has over 228 clinical trials are taking place at any given moment. About one third are behavior studies and the rest are therapeutic, searching for new treatments.

We lead the world in health innovation, such as: 3D models to help doctors practice before surgery, robots that look like teddy bears to collect data, implanted devices that grow with a child, to prevent repeat surgeries, using a child's own genes to create new cures.

Boston Children's shares our resources and discoveries with the world through over 300 global health projects, local training, fellowships, and grants. Our global outreach has more depth than ever before.

Grateful patient families express their thanks to Boston Children’s.

“Your kindness helped give us birthdays, T-ball games, kindergarten, first grade, today and beyond.” Jon, Dad of Emma

“If it was going to help her live, then why not try it? Without Boston Children's she wouldn't be here.” Avery's grandma

We're home to the largest pediatric research center in the nation. We find solutions others can't. Then, we share our discoveries with the world. Your gift helps save lives.

Our most vital fund, The Every Child Fund empowers us to respond to a changing world with one goal: to give every child a healthy future. Your gift provides essential support and shows faith in our mission. Thank you.

Boston Children's Hospital has been quietly changing the future of health for every child, here and around the world, since 1869. Named the number one children's hospital for care in the country, we are also the largest research center for pediatric health. We find solutions others can't while caring for the whole child.

To care for a sick child, parents may need to leave their jobs, put their lives on hold, and face overwhelming choices. Your gift supports our family-centered care: from big needs, like temporary housing and financial assistance, to small kindnesses that relieve stress. Families can focus on what's most important, their child. These services, so necessary and compassionate, are not covered by insurance.

Meal + parking vouchers: Over 20,000 meal vouchers sustain families whose savings may be depleted by the expenses of caring for a sick child. Our parking program helps over 1,300 families in need.

Stress relievers: Staying in the hospital around the clock can drain spirits and energy. Yoga classes, Reiki, massages, family coffee groups and other services ease stress and restore energy.

Support sessions, interpreters: Having a sick child can affect the entire family, including siblings. Social workers and support sessions make families feel less alone. We offer over 100 interpreters and 20 languages to help families who don't speak English talk to doctors and caregivers.

Patient family housing: Families travel from all over the world for the medical expertise only Boston Children's can offer. This year families spent 14,678 nights in safe, subsidized housing.

The Patient Family Housing Program provides 42 families who live 50 miles or more away from Boston with a place to sleep, bathe, cook, do laundry and more. The program began in 2004 with 13 rooms in the Devon Nicole House. In 2009, the Yawkey Family Inn was acquired to add 22 rooms for families. In the last three years, seven one-bedroom apartments were added next door at the Longwood Galleria. Record-keeping officially began in 2010 and since then 16,000 families and 20,000 reservations have been recorded. While some families stay for only one night, others stay for over a year.

With nightly costs from $30-$70, the program provides an inexpensive alternative to high-priced accommodations in Boston, peace of mind, as well as a 'home away from home'. There are several free and low cost amenities including volunteer meals, arts and crafts activities, laundry, shuttle service to and from the hospital, and tickets to various museums and activities around Boston. All offerings are intended to make families feel comfortable and stay connected during a difficult time.

Your gift to the Every Child Fund does so much more than help our families catch a break. You allow parents to be fully present with their child—and to receive an extraordinary level of support, one we otherwise could not make possible.

Links:

• BCH #1 Hospital

Boston Children’s Hospital is the place where life-changing care and world-changing research come together to produce excellence in disease treatment, scientific understanding, medical training, and healthier lifestyles for kids. Your support of The Every Child Fund helps us thrive in each area.

The Hale Family Center for Families provides a full range of logistical, informational, and emotional supports for families. This is where families turn for everything from financial help, to educational materials on their child’s illness, to training on medical procedures they’ll need to perform at home. It is where we offer wellness programs to help parents take care of themselves so they can be stronger for their children. Extraordinary Needs funding helps the Hale Family Center for Families alleviate the financial burdens that patient families face, paying for utilities, accommodations and more. In 2017, there were 165 requests totaling $94,451 which included support for telephone, gas/ heat, rent/mortgage, Target gift cards, education and memorial services.

A critical need the Hale Family Center for Families fulfills is a resource for patient family housing. To be at their child’s side at Boston Children’s Hospital, parents may leave their job, their home, other loved ones—and scramble for a place to stay in one of the costliest cities in the United States. Nearly 3,000 families from outside Massachusetts come to Boston Children’s each year for inpatient care. They soon discover that hotel rates are exorbitant. The financial burden can be crushing, diverting parents from their primary mission: to provide love, solace, and hope to their ailing child. That’s why we’ve made affordable patient family housing a top priority. Boston Children’s is committed to providing a safe, welcoming and convenient place to stay to all patient families who need one. Housing assistance is, of course, not covered by health insurance, so philanthropic support is essential. 

The hospital runs a Patient Family Housing Program which provides affordable accommodations for families while their children receive the medical care they need from Boston Children's. The program offers housing at three locations: the Devon Nicole House, the Yawkey Family Inn and units at the Longwood Galleria Apartments. Last year nearly 2,000 families stayed under our roofs for an average of 8 days each.

Wyatt, 2, has two airway conditions; he and his parents came to Boston Children’s from across the country to receive the highly specialized care he needs. Currently, Wyatt requires weekly treatments to stay healthy. Refusing to leave his side, his parents now live in a trailer in Massachusetts—while still facing household expenses in their home state, where their two other children live under their grandmother’s care. Wyatt’s father took a necessary unpaid leave from work, while Wyatt’s mother became a traveling nurse to make up the deficit. But, her single income couldn’t sustain two homes, three children and mounting medical care. Extraordinary needs funds alleviated significant stressors by helping with food, parking and electric bills, ensuring Wyatt’s parents could support their entire family, near and far.

 Your gift to the Every Child Fund does so much more than help our families catch a break. You allow parents to be fully present with their child—and to receive an extraordinary level of support, one we otherwise could not make possible.

Our most vital fund, the Every Child Fund empowers us to respond to a changing world with one goal: to give every child a healthy future. Your support enables us to treat the whole child, support families, and fund world-changing research.

To care for a sick child, parents may need to leave their jobs, put their lives on hold, and face overwhelming choices. Your gift supports our family-centered care: from big needs, like temporary housing and financial assistance, to small kindnesses that relieve stress. Families can focus on what's most important, their child. These services, so necessary and compassionate, are not covered by insurance.

• This year families spent 14,678 nights in safe, subsidized housing
• Over 20,000 meal vouchers sustained families
• Our parking program helps over 1,300 families in need
• Yoga classes, Reiki, massages, family coffee groups and other services ease stress
• Social workers and support sessions make families feel less alone

Many patients, like Harken use these services. Read her story, told by her mom Brooke to know what an impact you’ve made by donating to the Every Child Fund.

Bret and Brooke had built a wonderful life. But when their baby girl, Harken, got sick, they had to sacrifice everything to keep their family together. "You have visions of who they're going to be when they grow up. In one day, that was all over."

When one-year-old Harken failed a hearing test twice, her doctor sent her to Boston Children's. "The diagnosis was devastating," said Brooke. "Harken had Hurler's syndrome, also known as MPS1, a rare degenerative disease that attacks her whole body."

The first treatment step was a Bone Marrow Transplant. "It was hard to see her lose her hair and lose her being a kid. But our caregivers assured us that all we love about her would come back. Boston Children's was the best place to be. Everyone involved supported us with kindness and reassurance throughout the whole process of living at the hospital. Even massage sessions were provided to parents to lessen the stress."

"Then we brought Harken home. I was saddened to leave Boston Children's—they felt like family. We had to keep Harken quarantined for a year. I quit my job as a teacher to be with her all the time. No visitors were allowed into our home scrubbing the floors and toys were an everyday thing. We couldn't even have a Christmas tree. It was hard on Leyland: he had a sister he couldn't hug too tight or touch without washing his hands. Because I no longer worked, we struggled. But Boston Children's found us financial support. They helped with meals and parking. They even found Leyland a support group for siblings of terminally ill kids.”

After a while, we started to feel like a normal family again. I remember the first year we were allowed to have a real Christmas tree in our home again! Harken turned to me Christmas morning and said "I love you, Mom." The first time she said 'mom'. That meant the world to me."

"Today Harken attends preschool, which is amazing. You'd never know she has a terminal illness. She loves to come to Boston Children's for her treatments. They make it fun with stickers and art projects.

When they say 'Until every child is well,' that's how every person in Boston Children's feels. It's a beautiful place to deal with a not so beautiful ordeal. I would never go anywhere else."

Thank you for donating to the Every Child Fund.

Thank you for helping Boston Children’s Hospital save precious lives.

Our most vital fund, the Every Child Fund empowers us to respond to a changing world with one goal: to give every child a healthy future. Your support enables us to treat the whole child, support families, and fund world-changing research.

Your gift to the Every Child Fund directly supports the scientific breakthroughs and care advances that bring patients from all over the world. Here’s how philanthropic support is helping the sickest children get better:

Pioneering therapies: Cardiac surgeons have already saved babies’ lives using an astonishing new technique that employs the microscopic engines of cells—called mitochondria—as spare parts to preserve otherwise dying heart cells. Mitochondrial therapy is expected to heal hearts faster and stronger, and in the future could be applied to restore cell function in a wide range of diseases.

Revolutionary practices: Hollywood-style special effects, robotics and 3D printing can make surgery faster and safer. In our Pediatric Simulator Program, surgeons train on lifelike mannequins whose blood vessels, bone and skin behave and feel like the real thing. They rehearse complicated operations using patient-specific 3D-printed models that replicate a child’s anatomy with such fidelity the actual operation will be almost déjà vu.

Healing through play: Sometimes the best medicine doesn’t come from a bottle or a syringe. A dog’s sweet nuzzle, a lighthearted game, the soothing notes of a familiar song can heal children in ways that other methods cannot. The vital “extra” patient services that Boston Children’s provides can lower blood pressure and respiration rates, increase production of pain-fighting endorphins and bring comfort to sick children when they need it most. But such child life services are not reimbursable by insurance companies and are thus among the most difficult to fund.

Your support improves patient outcomes and has never been more crucial and will bring ground-breaking treatments and hope to families—until every child is well. Thank you so very much for your ongoing support of this important mission.