Welcome Letter
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The year brought many new challenges to the world in which we live. Even with these difficult times, we want to express our sincere gratitude for the support we received that allowed us to successfully engage in two major initiatives as well as for the ability to continue to provide all our programs and services free of charge for those touched by cancer.
This was a year highlighted by a couple of initiatives born out of our most recent strategic plan. Two goals of our plan: Expand the delivery of services and Ensure financial stability of the organization by increasing revenue streams to meet proposed budgets, guided our implementation of both our westside expansion as well as our tool (book) to help very young children, ages 2-6, cope with cancer in their family called Someone I Love is Sick. The illustrations you will see throughout this report come from one of the two versions of this tool.
We opened our doors in Westlake having designed space shared with and rented from Youth Challenge, a non-profit that provides sports and recreation for youth with physical disabilities. This space afforded us the ability to provide our programs and services with greater accessibility for people touched by cancer living in the communities west of the Cuyahoga River while working collaboratively with another non-profit to do so. We were grateful to raise the funds necessary to meet our capital costs as well as start-up first year operating expenses. Additionally, many new volunteers have been added that live on the westside of town.
Someone I Love is Sick was conceived, designed and written by Kathleen McCue, our Children’s Program Director. Throughout her years of working with children and families as they moved through a cancer journey, she was frustrated with the absence of helpful tools to both educate as well as communicate the variety of issues and circumstances that arise out of a cancer diagnosis. Key to the design of Someone I Love is Sick, is the ability for each family to customize it to the needs and circumstances of their particular young child throughout the cancer continuum. Several families contributed significant funds to help us create and publish two different versions of this tool, a parent and a grandparent version, and in February we began selling it around the country and world. A team of staff members were chosen to participate in a year-long process to enhance our effectiveness with this first ever foray into the world of social enterprise. Again, relating to our strategic goal, a new revenue stream was born and will continue to grow as we focus on sustainability.
We welcome your being our ambassadors in the community so that we can continue to be a place for healing, hope and support for those touched by cancer throughout the Northern Ohio area. As we move into our “decade of service” we hope you will remain a significant part of our caring community.
Eileen S. Saffran, LISW-S, Founder & Executive Director Margie Wheeler, Chair, Board of Directors
