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Pediatric Hospital Support Program

Pediatric Hospital Support Program

By providing funding to our pediatric partners, our Pediatric Hospital Support Program encourages healing by allowing them to implement their most critical and crucial programs – addressing the unique needs of their patients. Since the program’s inception in 1996, we have awarded over $15.1 million to 847 projects.

2017 Pediatric Hospital Support Program RecipientsMany partners request funding for creative therapies, as they also contribute to the healing process.

“Sometimes you just need that little extra something, and coming into a room with a guitar, or a ukulele, or a drum – it perks them up,” says Jennifer Kilinski, a music therapist we fund at Albany Medical Center. “By getting them to move, they are doing stuff that is so much fun. They don’t realize that they are actually meeting their goals for PT or OT or speech therapy at the same time.”

The artists who collaborate with the child life team at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore offer a variety of methods, including photography, computer animation, fine arts, and beat boxing.

KidZone TV check presentation

Executive Director Michele Hall-Duncan (left) presented Kravis Children’s Hospital with their 2015 grant to support KidZone TV live on the air.

“Through this program, not only has the hospitalization of our patients been eased, but new found talents are uncovered and self-esteem is built all while being creative,” shares Meghan Kelly, Director of the Phoebe H. Stein Child Life Program. “We consider this an integral part of our child life program and depend on these artists as true partners.”

And Mt. Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital’s KidZone TV is a groundbreaking, interactive media environment that is a standout among child life interventions.

According to Diane Rode, Director of Child Life & Creative Arts Therapy, “a wide range of televised shows offer interactive, entertaining, therapeutic and educational experiences that few patients and family members would expect to encounter during a hospital stay.”

One mother reflected on her son’s positive experience with KZTV by sharing, “who would have thought that after a week in the hospital, he wouldn’t want to go home?”.

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