New Hope for Kids Center for Grieving Children in Maitland has been our home for many years, but serving the growing population of Central Florida created the need for a larger facility. After a long and careful search, we found a new home! We are very happy to announce that our new location will allow us to address the issues listed below, but we’ll need your help to make it happen! The Center for Grieving Children will continue to provide services to children and families at 900 North Maitland Avenue in Maitland, FL until we have the funding to renovate our new home. You can be a part of the future of New Hope for Kids by helping us reach our financial goals.
WAITING LISTS
The need to provide services to grieving children and families continues to grow. At times, limited space has meant placing new families on a waiting list until someone leaves the program.
DUE TO LACK OF ADEQUATE SPACE:
- We cannot run 3 age groups simultaneously, so families with children in each age range
must attend multiple nights, rather than all attending on the same evening. - We are unable to hold concurrent grief support sessions with Spanish and English speaking families.
- Kids have limited opportunities to participate in popular activities such as painting,
crafts or puppetry or enter the “hurricane room” (a safe space to work out anger and anxiety) during their grief sessions. - We are restricted in adding new and valuable programs to our curriculum such as individual counseling, pre-death support, physical activities, teen projects, etc.
FROM A FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE, LIMITED SPACE ALSO AFFECTS US BY:
- Increasing expenses as staff must travel for wish family interviews and wish granting.
- Creating the need to rent off-site facilities to hold activities for special needs children.
- Requiring the majority of staff to work off-site. The cost of additional office space, duplicate equipment and phone lines takes revenue away from program services.
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES:
- Due to limited handicap access and the absence of an elevator, special needs children are
unable to participate in our Grief Program. It is not feasible to modify our current location to create handicap accessibility or to add an elevator. - There are only 12 parking spaces for families and volunteers. A typical night requires 32 spaces at current attendance rates.
