FUND-A-NEED

Together, we can change lives.

Every year, Ambassadors selects a special project (“Fund-A-Need”) at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford or child/maternal health research at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Stanford Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program (SAYAC)

2023-24 Fund-a-Need

Traditional healthcare organizations design their care for either children or adults, leaving the needs of teens and young adults unmet. Pediatric activities and spaces are juvenile, while adult care can be intimidating. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is already life-altering, but patients at this age have increased feelings of isolation from missing out on key milestones with their peers. To address these unique challenges, Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Health Care teamed up to create the Stanford Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program (SAYAC) for patients ages 15-29 with cancer. The SAYAC team supports transition of care, survivorship, mental health, fertility and reproductive health, pain management, career and education assistance, nutrition and exercise, and many other services.

Our goal is to raise $450,000 to expand and implement new programming provided by the SAYAC team.

Previous Fund-A-Need Projects

HOPE, HELP, AND HUGS: WRAPPING OUR ARMS AROUND NICU FAMILIES | $425,000

Over 40% of patients at Packard Children's Hospital require financial assistance to cover the cost of their care. We are a safety net hospital with a level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the highest level of care for the most critical cases. All donations to the fund-a-need support essential resources for families with a child in the NICU.

STRONG MINDS, STRONG FAMILIES | $360,000

The Stanford Parenting Center (SPC) launched in 2020 to address the mental health crisis among kids and teens based on studies showing parenting interventions can be as effective, if not more effective in treating a child's psychiatric conditions than those focused directly on the child. Led by a team of world-class experts, the SPC equips parents with evidence-based strategies to help them recognize, defuse, and even treat their child’s mental health difficulties.

Our 2021-2022 fund-a-need Strong Minds, Strong Families provided critical seed funding to generate and launch essential SPC programming for families coping with mental illness. Together, we laid the groundwork for mental health and parenting experts at Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine to expand their care to more families than ever before.

BRINGING THE WORLD TO KIDS | $245,000

We’re celebrating the next chapter for patients and families at Packard Children's: the opening of the fifth floor. The fifth floor focuses on the most innovative pediatric research in cancer, stem cell and gene therapies, and first-in-human trials. The care and trials provided here may, in many cases, be a child’s very last option. The fifth floor is sealed from the rest of the hospital, as children are receiving stem cell transplants, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy which make their immune systems extremely vulnerable and often require extended periods of isolation. These diseases and treatments sadly prohibit hospitalized children from experiencing the world in the way most children do.

Through our Fund-a-Need we want to give children and teens on the fifth floor moments of normalcy and joy that they so greatly deserve, and in essence, bring the world to them. The 2020 Ambassadors’ Fund-A-Need underwrites: 

  • Additional hours for music and art therapists to spend just with children in isolation 

  • Brand new programming for teens and young adults, including support groups 

  • Community building events for patients and their families so they can share their experiences 

  • Time for siblings to use the playrooms and cope with their family’s stay in the hospital