SAN DIEGO – Oct. 15, 2014 – To help overcome the challenges experienced by low-income parents in getting to the hospital and managing an extended stay away from home, The Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation and the Farrell Family Foundation are granting a total of $65,000 to Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego for their collaborative efforts to provide basic food and transportation assistance to disadvantaged families whose children are being treated at Rady Children’s.
“The Ronald McDonald House and Rady Children’s each do vital work to promote health and healing for sick and injured children,” said Mick Farrell, a Farrell Family Foundation trustee. “These organizations have found that they can have an even greater impact for children by working together to address barriers to care.”
“Nonprofit organizations are often in competition with each other for attention and philanthropic dollars. I hope our joint grants will inspire giving in support of similar partnerships between independent nonprofit organizations,” said Doug Dawson, executive director of the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation. “The partnership between Rady Children’s and the Ronald McDonald House is an excellent model for what can happen when organizations coordinate their efforts to address pressing community needs.”
The two foundations are helping Rady Children’s aid families with basic needs such as transportation vouchers, car seats and bereavement assistance. Families may then cross the street and enter the Ronald McDonald House, where they can enjoy three meals daily to help keep them strong during their child’s hospitalization. By addressing basic needs, these organizations are helping to ensure that a family’s logistical challenges do not get in the way of a child’s medical care.
About Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego
Founded in 1980, Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego provides a “home away from home” to families with children being treated for serious, often life-threatening conditions at local hospitals. San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House was specifically designed to meet the needs of families – including 47 overnight bedrooms and a Family Care Center meeting daytime needs with a kitchen serving hot meals, showers, laundry facilities, nap rooms and a children’s play area. With a sense of normalcy restored, the nearly 15,000 family members the Ronald McDonald House serves each year can focus their energy on helping their hospitalized child heal. Charity Navigator has given the organization the highest rating available – four stars – based on the charity’s financial health, accountability and transparency. To learn more, visit www.rmhcsd.org.
About Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego is a 520-bed pediatric care facility providing the largest source of comprehensive pediatric medical services in San Diego, southern Riverside and Imperial counties. Rady Children’s is the only hospital in the San Diego area dedicated exclusively to pediatric health care and is the region’s only designated pediatric trauma center. In June 2014, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rady Children’s among the best children’s hospitals in the nation in all 10 pediatric specialties the magazine surveyed. For more information, visit http://www.rchsd.org.
Media Contact: Carlos Delgado
Office: 858-966-4901
cdelgado@rchsd.org