In our third phase, we open Fiona’s Family House, a physical home that is a central hub of specialized services and resources for Young Adults with Advanced Cancer in Santa Cruz County.
The house will help us to:
- Inspire and help facilitate the building of a natural community of support for families affected by young-onset cancer.
- Transform the scope of healing services in Santa Cruz County by serving as an intern site for new practitioners. We offer specialized training future social workers, therapists, massage practitioners, yoga instructors, acupuncturists and dietitians, who volunteer at our center and thus become uniquely qualified to work with our rare demographic.
- Transform the scope of healing services in Santa Cruz County by serving as an intern site for new practitioners. We offer specialized training and hands-on experience for future social workers, therapists, massage practitioners, yoga instructors, acupuncturists and dietitians, who volunteer at our center and gain expertise in working with our rare demographic.
- Inspire and help facilitate the building of a natural community of support for families affected by young-onset cancer.
- Provide succinct and critical physician education about the unique needs of YAs by forming a group of passionate advocate patients and families. This will inform the treatment plans and patient care decisions of local doctors.
Fiona’s Family House becomes the center of support services for young adults with advanced cancer and their families in Santa Cruz County, helping to inspire radical change in the scope of medical and support services for young adults living with advanced cancer, to create a family community, and to empower our members to live with, not be defined by their diagnosis.
Proposed programs include:
| Patient Practical Support | Legal advice, body work, respite, healthy meals, support groups, therapy, healing circles, and resource consultations. Help with wills/advanced directives, benefits consultation, Social Security Planning, finding reasonable accommodations. All programs are run by volunteers. |
| Family Support | Bodywork, support group, financial planning, case management, wills, legal plan for children, financial resources, all volunteer run. |
| Family/Community Building | Game nights, family dinners, children’s outings, movie nights, YA date nights. |
| Advocacy/Education | Speak at the local, state and federal level about policy gaps, develop and present a curriculum to physicians; educate community, volunteer opportunities. |
| Internship Program | Change the knowledge and clinical practice of those in complimentary healing services, arrangements with local schools to offer specialized volunteer internship program. |
| The 29-Month Fund | Donations restricted to paying for health insurance during the 29 month gap between qualifying as permanently disabled and becoming eligible for Medicare |
Fiona’s House is a drop-in center that is open to any young adult with advanced cancer and/or their family members; family is not defined by blood, but by relationship. Because patients are accustomed to the typically cold and sterile settings of medical establishments, Fiona’s Family House is intentionally configured as a warm, inviting, comfortable home-like environment.
We see a one-stop-shop for all services, where everyone who participates is assessed by a knowledgeable social worker, who will act as the lesion between clients and referral services. .
Fiona’s Family House is a three stage project; for information about the other phases, see:
- Phase 1: Empower and Inform by creating a physician education advocacy program.
- Phase2: Recognize and Support YAs in Santa Cruz County, providing individual support by funding requests for help with specific needs.
