Dear Hope for HIE community,
2023 was a HUGE year of growth and acceleration of Hope for HIE's mission to improve the quality of life for children and families impacted by neonatal and pediatric-acquired Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy.
Here are the HIElights!
- Grew to connect over 9,000 families worldwide
- Added TWO part-time staff members totally dedicated to supporting our global community and families -- no other organization like ours in the neonatal or child neurology space have both a social worker AND child life specialist. They have grown both the scope and quality of programming and services by unimaginable bounds this year.
- Our amazing program manager, Deanna Bryan, helped facilitate over 1,050+ newly diagnosed support packages and educational materials available in 28+ languages, 120+ PICU packages, 40+ bereavement packages, and over 5,120 pieces of educational materials.
- We hosted SIX in-person meet ups and retreats, SEVEN Hustle for Hope regional events, saw countless families meeting up on their own, and hosted ONE huge annual HIE awareness month in April.
- We have over 200 volunteers helping make amazing things happen, including our 12+ trained peer mentors -- we expanded that group to include more diversity and demographic representation for meaningful connections.
- Deanna's care committees wrote hundreds and hundreds of notes to newly diagnosed families, those facing hospitalization, loss and sending out birthday cards.
We introduced the Child Life On Call app to our community FREE for any Hope for HIE family that has access, and those who don't can access the materials through our Child Life Specialist
We had representation and presented at THIRTEEN major meetings and events around the world including being asked to speak by the FDA and Gates Foundation.
We've spent A LOT of time collaborating on research and moving forward research projects into clinical trials, and met with 18+ researchers.
MOVING INTO 2024
We are eager to continue moving our mission forward in the New Year. We have many exciting projects that we can't wait to share more about in January! We will also have a more comprehensive 2023 Impact Report released, so be on the lookout for that.
On behalf of our Board of Directors, I want to thank you for your incredible support... your time, your awareness, and your gifts to Hope for HIE, especially our Partners in Hope - Medtronic, ReAlta Life Sciences and Neotech Products.
We wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and hopeful New Year.
Most sincerely,
Betsy Pilon
Executive Director
