What’s Been Going on at Zach’s Bridge – February 2024 Update

Jon
February 11, 2024

It's been a while since our last update, and there has been a lot, and we mean A LOT, going on here at Zach’s Bridge. We honestly cannot even cover it all here, but it's important that we share some of the highlights.

It’s been a while since our last update, and there has been a lot, and we mean A LOT, going on here at Zach’s Bridge. We honestly cannot even cover it all here, but it’s important that we share some of the highlights.

Our goals to help families facing advanced pediatric cancer with peer support are the same as they always have been. But we’ve learned that while this vision and mission are universally acknowledged as unique and much needed, generating referrals of families that need this service has been challenging. It requires a lot of things to line up – finding the right family at the right time, and perhaps most importantly, having that family connected with a healthcare provider to suggest that the family can benefit from this help at this point in time.

Research

We’ve been conducting research about the value that Zach’s Bridge can provide, by surveying bereaved cancer caregivers. We’ll be sharing more details on this on an ongoing basis, but the long and short of it is that more than 50 families have told us that if they could have taken advantage of Zach’s Bridge when their child was in treatment, it would have helped them. More specifically, you can see how many respondents told us how it would have helped. Be on the lookout for more details on this over the coming weeks and months.

You can see some of the stats in the image. If you want to download, them click on the image, or download a copy here.

CAC2 Bereavement Support

Our executive director, Jenn, was selected to lead a cross functional group of other nonprofits working on late journey/bereavement support for the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer or CAC2. The group is intended to improve collaboration, resource and knowledge sharing all with the goal of enhancing support for cancer patients and families.

Speaking and Sponsorships

Perhaps the most exciting thing in this entire update is that we were selected to share the results of our research and how Zachs Bridge helps at the Association of Pediatric Social Workers Annual Conference in Chicago in April. We also will be exhibiting at the conference.

We will also be exhibiting at a similar conference, the American Psychosocial Oncology Society, in Albuquerque on March 7-8. Lastly, we’ll be speaking about Zach’s Bridge and Philanthropy at Salem State University on March 22.

If you happen to be in any of these places or at these conferences on these dates, please let us know and we’d love to meet up.

3rd Annual Zach Wall Blood Drive

The third annual Zach Wall Blood Drive will be on Tuesday April 23rd at Lovelane in Lincoln, Massachusetts. As soon as the signup form is open we will let you know. If you are local to Boston, we hope you can come by. If you aren’t local, we hope you will consider giving blood close to wherever you may be.

Awareness and Partnerships

We’ve been hard at work increasing awareness and building partnerships. This includes a stint speaking with the good people of Maine about childhood cancer on local sports radio, and so many fruitful conversations. We will continue to talk to as many people and organizations as we can, and appreciate any ideas or connections that our community may have. Please let us know if you think there is someone we should talk to.