Thomas Jefferson Area United Way Day of Caring - Giving that Gives Back

Since 2007, Breath of Hope has participated in the Thomas Jefferson Area United Way's Laurence Richardson's Day of Caring.  Each year, in September, the Central Virginia's United Way coordinates hundreds of projects for other nonprofits and schools in the area and provides thousands of volunteers to help.  It is the time of year, other nonprofits and schools look forward to receiving volunteers to complete projects they otherwise could not have done without the human power required.

In the summer or 2007, I heard a radio advertisement requesting nonprofit organizations contact our United Way to obtain the volunteers needed for projects for one day.  We knew there was a project that we could untilize volunteers but we also wanted a project which would give back to the community.  Breath of Hope had been supplied infant hand print kits for our Expectant/New Parent Packages by individual Board Members and myself.  We had found a wholesaler which we could purchase these kits for approximately $5 each.  We knew we could assemble them using containers and paris of plaster for less than $5 each.  In fact, the total cost per kit with labels, ziplock bags and instructions are at a cost of about $1.25 each, far less than the cost we were paying.

We also had all our printed materials reviewed and edited by the University of Virginia's NICU staff lead by Robert Sinkin, MD and felt we should give back to them.  On average, 450 infants are admitted each and every year at the NICU there.  Today, a hand print kit is supplied to each and every family who has their baby admitted there.  The remaining are used in Breath of Hope's packages and we have had extra to help send to Project Sweet Peas Projects around the country.

This year we had an amazing group of volunteers from CFA Institute and Banana Republic of Barracks Road come and learn about congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Breath of Hope and help us assemble another 500 hand print kits.  And they see the results which we provide the UVA NICU.  We know that families throughout the area benefit from these simple kits.  We also know the staff at UVA's NICU enjoy giving this small token to families in order to capture their child's first days here on earth.

We thank the volunteers, the Thomas Jefferson Area's United Way (Shaele Wood should receive a metal for her coordination each and every year), PRA International for providing the space to complete this project and the UVA NICU for the inspiration, help and assistance to complete this project for three years.

Next year will be the 20th year of the United Way Day of Caring here in this area.  Twenty years of helping other nonprofits and organizations have volunteers provided so they can help others.  By giving, you give and get and it is returned,

We would also like to promote a wonderful Printer we used this year - their service and quality are amazing!  With very short notice we were able to get our labels and they went over and above the call of duty!  Lepin' Lizard Labels - order your labels from them - they are less than any others we have used and their service is amazing!

Nurses Week - May 6 - 12, 2010

Let nurses know how important they are to us!

A CDH Christmas

If you like this - you can order it for your Christmas Tree or as a gift - please go here A CDH Christmas

Parental Perceptions of Social Support

If you are in the Texas Area - there is a Research Study we would like to help recruit families to participate. Please contact the email addresses provided.



June 21, 2009

Dear Parents:



We know that social support is vital for parents who have a chronically or critically ill child in the Intensive Care Unit. As an undergraduate student in the honors program with a major in Psychology at Austin College, I am interested in understanding more about the types of support that are most helpful to parents when they have a child in the ICU. Currently I am working on a project for my senior thesis titled, Parental perceptions of social support: An investigation of what types and sources of social support are perceived as most helpful when a child is in the intensive care unit, where I plan to examine what different sources and types of social support parents see as being more or less helpful in coping with the stress of having a sick child. This project has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Austin College. The purpose of this letter is to request your participation in the project.



In order to participate in this project, I need both parents involvement. In the past, much of the research has only focused on the experiences of mothers. For this project, I want to make sure to include both mothers and fathers. Your participation will involve one face-to-face interview with the mother and a separate face-to-face interview with the father. Each interview will last approximately 1 hour. In order to make it as convenient as possible, I will come to your desired location on a day and time that works best in your schedule. I ask that spouses not talk to each other between the interviews about anything said in the individual interview, so that you will not be influenced by what the other one said. Once both interviews have been completed, you may talk about the interview. The interviews will be tape-recorded. The tape-recording is necessary for participation in the project. It will be used to ensure that the researcher gets all of information written down accurately. The tapes will be transcribed so that sources and types of support can be accurately coded. When the tapes are transcribed, any information that could be used to identify you personally (such as names) will be removed to protect your privacy.



In addition to the interview, I will need one parent to complete a short background questionnaire. This questionnaire should not take more than 10minutes to complete.



All information will be kept confidential. No names will be used in the research. Each tape and questionnaire will be assigned a corresponding identification number that will be used instead of a name. The tapes and the questionnaires will be kept in separate locked filing cabinets in my advisor's office. Only my advisor, my research assistant, and I will have access to the raw data. In accordance with standard research guidelines, tapes and transcriptions will be stored in a secure file cabinet for seven years. After seven years, they will be shredded.



While I do not believe there is any risk to you in participating in this project, discussing the time a child spent in the hospital can bring up painful memories. If at any time during the interview you become upset and would like to stop, please let me know. We can stop the interview at anytime. Benefits of participating in this project are helping researchers identify sources of social support that were the most helpful and least helpful to parents who had a child in the ICU, in order to help hospitals reduce the stress of parents in this difficult situation. Participation is on a volunteer basis, and you may withdraw your consent at any time without penalty. When the study is completed, a brief summary of our findings will be provided to you upon request. Thank you for your time. You are welcome to e-mail Caitlin Tabor atctabor@austincollege.edu or my advisor, Dr. Jill Schurr at jschurr@austincollege.edu with any questions or concerns.



Sincerely,

Caitlin E. Tabor

Undergraduate Student

Jill K. Schurr, Ph.D., Advisor