| Childrens Respite |
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Project Rainbow - Children’s Respite Services For more than a quarter of a century, Project Rainbow has provided FREE respite care, a vital resource to families in the community. Our services create temporary relief for families or caregivers by providing a safe environment where kids have time to be kids and parents/caregivers have time to be independent adults. Project Rainbow was created in 1982 to provide respite care and support to medically fragile, chronically ill, and disabled children from birth to 17 and their families. These supports include hosting special activities and events and facilitating case management and supportive services. Our highly-trained staff and volunteers supervise all of the children in a family during a home visit. Each respite worker is trained in the following American Red Cross courses: Adult, Infant, & Child CPR, First Aid, Caregiver Training, blood-borne pathogens, and general safety modules. Skilled staff supervision allows parents and caregivers time away from daily "family" responsibilities to attend to errands, appointments, or other activities, or to simply have have break from life's typical stressors.
Home-Based Respite Care: Trained respite care workers provide home-based respite care services in 4-hour increments to families of children who are chronically ill, medically fragile and/or developmentally/physically disabled. Project Rainbow staff supervise all of the minors in the home when they provide the respite care, not just the child with special needs. Community-Based Respite Care: Project Rainbow staff also provides monthly community-based, or drop-off, respite activities to children who are chronically ill, medically fragile and/or developmentally/physically disabled. This service is typically held at our Braden Avenue facility, but may also occur as a "sleep over" at a one of our community partners' locations. For example, Easter Seals collaborates with Foundation for Dreams, Inc. to offer respite services through recreational camping at Dream Oaks Camp. During a drop-off respite session, whether on campus or at the location of a community partner, children participate in structured group activities such as cooking, crafts, music, learning, but equally important is their exposure to socialization opportunities with their peers. Acitivites during a sleep-over or a drop-off respite can be tailored to a child's specific interests and needs. Case Management: This educational aspect of our program ensures that families and children are aware of and have access to any available, appropriate community resources. Case management allows for the coordination of comprehensive services provided by Easter Seals and other community partner agencies. As part of case management, the program collects food and other necessary items for the families through organizations such as: the F.A.N. Club, the Mayor’s Feed the Hungry Program, Gifts In Kind, Kiwanis, Rotary Club and private contributions.
Clients most often find Easter Seals Project Rainbow through referrals from local medical providers, social service agencies,such as Young Children and Families, Sarasota-Manatee Respite Coalition, Manatee Glens, Children First, area hospitals, and through family and friends of Easter Seals. If you or someone you know would benefit from our services, please call: (941) 355-7637 Services are provided by appointment in the home and on our main campus on Braden Avenue in north Sarasota County. Office hours are from 8:00am - 4:30pm, Monday through Friday; however,community-based and after-hours services continue as needed.
Because of support from the community, we are able to continue helping families in our area who are in need of this vital service. Financial contributions, in-kind donations, and program volunteers are always welcome and appreciated.
Contributions can be mailed or delivered to: 350 Braden Avenue On behalf of the families who benefit from Project Rainbow's services, thank you for your support!
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:12 |
