Giving Hope for the Journey to Children and Families
Edmarc’s support for families reduces strain and keeps families together.
For children diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, life changes forever for them and their families. Their lives consist of tests, hospital visits, and constant questions. Although this is their difficult reality, Edmarc is there to partner with them and provide support to help make their journey as comfortable as possible.
Edmarc began because a community wanted to support each other.
Edmarc was established in 1978 as the first hospice in the nation designed specifically for children. Founded in Suffolk, Virginia, Edmarc was initially created as a grassroots effort to care for children in their homes who are facing life-threatening illnesses. Edmarc now provides a multitude of services to kids and families, allowing them to stay together and in a place of familiarity and comfort.
Edmarc provides health care the way it should be.
Our vision is a community in which no child or family is denied pediatric hospice services and palliative care. Currently, Edmarc serves the Hampton Roads community, from the North Carolina border up to and including the Peninsula…but we don’t want to stop there. Edmarc is expanding further north to serve Williamsburg, Gloucester, Mathews, and the surrounding counties, bringing needed in-home and holistic care to children and families who currently have no other option.
70
children served per day
310
families served per year
0
billed to familes
Edmarc’s mission is to ease the trauma of a child’s illness or death, and to reduce the disabling effects of pediatric illness, loss and bereavement on families.
Edmarc is a 501(c)3 and provides services based on a charity model, providing hospice, home health, and bereavement services for more than 300 families each year. Families are never billed for any support they receive. Because of generous community support, Edmarc can provide quality care, and parents are able to focus on their child and families while not having to worry about another bill. This allows Edmarc staff to enter homes and unburden a family while providing…
…hope for the journey.
“This beautiful organization, with an army of volunteers and donors, blesses families like mine in many ways every single day. They continue to give us hope for our journey and have brought us joy on some of our darkest days. In serving our family, they have become like family… and we are so grateful for the continued kindness and dedication to us.”
Jessica Killingbeck, Addy’s Mom