At Ronald McDonald House of the Greater Hudson Valley we are committed to providing families with support while their critically ill children are receiving care. We continually work to expand our services, focusing on enabling family centered care to help families stay together while their child undergoes treatment and cope better with a stressful situation. Since we opened in 2011, our 12-bedroom House located next to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital has provided over 1,800 families with overnight accommodations, keeping them close to their child during their hospital stay. We assisted an additional 2,000 families through our Day Program, offering all the amenities of the House such as meals, laundry services and a respite room. We have programs to support families emotionally and physically such as art therapy, bereavement support and programs for breastfeeding mothers.
This year we developed some new ways to serve families’ needs beyond the walls of our House including: - providing overnight hotel accommodations for wait-listed families
- developing a comfort care bag program called NIko’s Gifts that provides families we are unable to serve immediately with a bag full of necessities to get them through the first few days of their hospital stay. The bags are supplied with items such as; a phone charger, a change of clothes and toiletries.
- we have also implemented an on-line guest application making it easier for families and hospital personnel to request a room. While we are exploring the expansion of our current facility in Valhalla for the future, we don’t expect this to be a reality for several years. So, in alignment with our mission, in the coming months and 2020 we are pursuing these possibilities: - exploring implementing programs such as Family Rooms and Hospitality Carts in local hospitals, enabling us to serve more children and families in different communities;
- working with additional local hotels to provide accommodations for families who are forced to be waitlisted, thus providing additional support to families during their child’s hospital stay;
- starting a van program at the House to transport families locally to hotels, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc.; and
- providing vouchers to families relying on public transportation and covering the cost of parking for families during their stay with us. Your support not only allows us to continue our current efforts but supports the growth for our future programs. On behalf of our families, thank you for your generosity and your support of our mission. Sincerely,
Christina Riley
Executive Director |
