End of Year Giving

November-December

MERCURY WISHBOOK

Goal

Through the Mercury News’ annual Wish Book campaign, which seeks money for the most vulnerable in our communities, Coastal Kids Home Care is hoping to raise $50,000 to provide services and help for families like the Jackowskis who are caring for medically fragile children in Santa Clara County. The goal is to improve the in-home medical care for some 350 children dealing with cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, congenital conditions and other complex medical situations.

The agency plans to use the donations to establish a small administrative office in Santa Clara to support the nurses, social workers and therapists in the area. Currently, those workers are operating out of the Coastal Kids Monterey County office.

Because [our nurse] Heather was there I was able to focus on being a mom and on my child who was sick.

- Collin's Mom

TO DONATE TO WISHBOOK CLICK HERE

MCGIVES!

The Big Idea

Expanding mental health counseling to children and teens responds to a critical need in our community. Wrenching data shows that the number of teens experiencing depression in the last decade has increased significantly and suicide rates among teens and younger children continue to rise. The pandemic exacerbated these trends, and our community has been ill-equipped to respond. Early in 2019, Coastal Kids Home Care expanded our traditional counseling to include care for mild to moderate mental health services for children. Intervention that this critical stage, when children are coping with issues like loss, divorce, bullying or anxiety, provides children and their parents with tools and strategies to build resilience for the future. Demand for counseling continues to increase, support from MCGives would allow us to invest in additional counselors with expertise in children and teens – to bring back hope to children in Monterey County.

I thought counseling was just like how they showed it on TV where people just have to talk. But it was actually fun! Kate made it fun. We talked, we played, and we worked on arts and crafts.