Since the FamiliesCAN program began in 2000, we have helped hundreds of families as they make their way through cancer treatment.
The primary focus of FamiliesCAN is providing financial support for patients. We pay for a family’s most basic needs, including rent or mortgage, and food. When possible, we also fund a wide range of secondary expenses, including: temporary housing/hotels; transportation; childcare; counseling; education (fees and tuition, from preschool up to college); recreational costs (Great America and Disneyland); attendant care; personal items (wigs, undergarments). Over the years we have paid for Thanksgiving dinners for homebound families, karate and dance lessons, deposits on new apartments and automobiles...whatever the situation has called for to ease the impact of cancer on the family. We do not fund medical expenses, including prescription drugs.
FamiliesCAN provides hands-on assistance in a variety of ways. Our Program Director helps patients tap financial sources available outside of our organization to supplement our gift. She also helps patients sort through practical matters, including housing issues and counseling needs. And finally, she connects patients with community resources, including a counseling program called Kids Konnected (www.kidskonnected.org) and Camp Kesem (http://kesem.stanford.edu/), a camp for the children of cancer patients.
Knowing that this is a particularly vulnerable time for families, FamiliesCAN hosts activities throughout the year which help to provide emotional support. We take smaller groups of families to local events, which in past years have included: The Wiggles, Barnum and Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice, Barney, Sharks Hockey, Bonfante Gardens, Kelly Clarkson, Barbara Streisand and the Andrea Bocelli concert. We also offer occasional classes, including Parents With Cancer, a parenting workshop offered twice per year in conjunction with Parentsplace. |
