Mission

Hundreds of families in New Jersey and thousands nationwide are confronted each year with the terrible news that their child has cancer, sickle cell disease or some other blood disorder. Embrace Kids Foundation offers unique programs and services that deliver a comprehensive and compassionate method of delivering care to families when they need it most - when their child has a catastrophic illness.

Since 1991, Embrace Kids Foundation has existed to support the non-medical needs of kids with cancer or a blood disorder. Founded by a small group of volunteers, the charity spends over $1 million a year to fulfill its mission. Our programs and support services are offered to patient families under care at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and Jersey Shore University Medical Center. However, we are not funded by these institutions. Rather, we are an independent organization providing the resources that help support families and hospital-based programs for the child-patients that would not be available otherwise.

All of the services we provide are free. Although many of these patients have some form of insurance, it does not cover support services or direct assistance to families.

Our family service liaisons meet each family to inform them of the various programs and services we provide, assess their particular needs and recommend services and programs that would be most beneficial to them. Embrace Kids Foundation funds counselors, child-life specialists, Spanish interpreters, teachers and family service liaisons who can respond to the overall impact the illness has on both the patient and the family. We are committed to enhancing the quality of life of the kids and relieving the emotional, spiritual and financial concerns of their families. Our programs include:

Embrace Kids Learning Center

• Children receive individual tutoring which enables them to stay current with school while in treatment.

David E. Zullo Pediatric Palliative Care (PACCT) Program

• This program provides a unique form of care which allows the same nurses who cared for the child in the hospital to make home care visits and thereby provides complete continuity of care.

Family Emergency Needs

• Families facing hardship due to their child's illness receive direct financial support for paying critical bills such as rent, utilities and prescriptions.

Embrace Kids with Sickle Cell

• Embrace Kids Foundation has created a New Jersey-based philanthropic effort to specifically support children with sickle cell disease, a pediatric disease with little support or awareness nationally.

Other Important Support Services for Patient Families

• The family services staff organizes inspirational holiday events (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Holiday) attended by hundreds of families to lift the spirits of the children, their siblings and their parents.
• As part of our family support services, we provide Spanish translators at bereavement and other events and produce written materials in Spanish.