By: A Rosie Place For Children and Impress Jewelry Creations
Having a home away from home and spending time with people who feel like family are some of the things that make life special.
That’s what A Rosie Place For Children provides to children and families.
A Rosie Place For Children is a specialty hospital that provides respite care for medically fragile children in all 92 Indiana counties. Medically fragile children are those who may require life-sustaining devices, medications, treatments, therapies, and intervention daily. When children stay at A Rosie Place for Children, they’re cared for by licensed and trained nurses and staff — many of whom become like family.
Caring for a medically fragile child can be intense and relentless, so by providing direct care to children at A Rosie Place, the entire families of these children are cared for.
“There are families out there just getting by, and they’re doing it with a smile. But their child’s medical needs take a toll physically and emotionally,” says Ronda Spaulding, the development office assistant at A Rosie Place for Children. “They need the support that we’re able to provide here. Our families are all so committed to giving their children the best life they can have, and they’re pretty tenacious about that. We constantly marvel at the innovation and strength of our families.”
PROVIDING A PLACE TO CONNECT
Families get the opportunity to be together at HAVEN events designed specifically for them. After they connect with other families who share their experiences, they often feel more comfortable and are encouraged.
As important as it is for parents to connect to one another, it’s also important for siblings of medically fragile children to connect with one another, which they get to do through A Rosie Place For Children.
“Imagine being a sibling of a fragile child and no one really understands why your little brother or sister are the way they are,” Spaulding says. “We see families sharing ideas, but also the experience of: ‘You get me.’”
The nonprofit has been open for more than a decade, but has had a gradual, calculated growth journey — as staff took the time needed to figure out how to best provide such a unique service.
MEETING NEEDS
When A Rosie Place for Children first opened and was being developed, it was only on weekends. It simply hadn’t been done before. Knowing that two nights of care wasn’t enough, they grew the program, adding week-long stays and 10-day stays. More recently they added day stays. These are just some of the ways A Rosie Place For Children staff have listened and responded to families’ needs.
“We try very hard to figure out what families need and what we can do to make their lives easier,” Spaulding says.
Sometimes, that looks like helping with the logistics of caring for a medically fragile child. That’s why A Rosie Place For Children created a service to collect excess medical equipment from families to provide it to other families in need.
OFFERING HOPE
What families with medically fragile children handle is hard, grueling, and tiring, Spaulding says. Some families do it all on their own without relatives or someone else who can provide care. A Rosie Place For Children provides an opportunity for families to rest, connect, and feel hopeful.
Spaulding says A Rosie Place For Children helps families feel less alone since they can see how the community rallies around to support them. This spring, A Rosie Place For Children started a grief care group — in-person and virtually — to continue helping families who have experienced the loss of a fragile child. Although the death of their child may mean the end of caring for them, they want to continue to support the family.
A Rosie Place For Children also connects families to valuable resources, like charities that exist simply to help bring smiles to the faces of medically fragile children and their families through fun things like customized cakes or personalized shoes.
SUPPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY
A Rosie Place For Children wouldn’t be able to impact children and families the way it does without the support of the community. As it’s grown, staffing, especially on weekends, has been challenging. Particularly now, there is a huge strain on nursing everywhere, and it is impacting the ability to meet the needs of families. A Rosie Place needs help spreading the word to nurses about the meaningful work and relationships they would find here.
There are donors who have been with A Rosie Place For Children since the beginning, but also a growing group of donors who are just now hearing about the nonprofit.
“There are people who come and want to give and then give again and again,” Spaulding says. “It’s amazing how it gets in people’s hearts. Because it’s local, I think it’s extra special for donors to give to people who are part of their community.”
If you’d like to volunteer or donate to A Rosie Place for Children, visit their website. Families who use the services of the nonprofit don’t pay a dime thanks to the generous donations of individuals and businesses in the community. For more information, or to apply, contact A Rosie Place for Children at 574-235-8899.
