As President & CEO, Michele Hall Duncan leads the enCourage Kids Foundation with her expertise in the nonprofit and development space, development of varied Programs and oversees the growth of the Pediatric Hospital Support Program. The relationships she has fostered over the years with Child Life staff and all levels of hospital administration, have helped her to develop an integral understanding of their needs and has helped position the organization to be on the forefront of state-of-the-art programming.
IW: You truly have been doing great work throughout the years and have touch so many lives.
Michele Hall Duncan: Yes, thank you. Since 1985, enCourage Kids Foundation has helped humanize healthcare for children and their families by resourcing impact-driven pediatric programs and supporting the Child Life Community. Serving nearly one million children annually, enCourage Kids is focused on making hospitals a better place to get better. Our programs offer relief from the constant burden of treatments, hospital stays, and doctor appointments, while also supporting pediatric facilities to meet the unique needs of their patients. enCourage Kids Foundation envisions a world where every child regardless of the difficulty of his or her medical journey—experiences joy, hope, resilience, and healing.
IW: Mental Health Awareness is a hot topic. Tell us how the child life specialists are working with hospitalized children to get them through their mental health challenges.
Michele Hall Duncan: Mental health is a very big concern right now and we’ve seen a significant shift in focus to addressing it. One of the stark realities to come to light this past year and a half has been the impact of the pandemic on the mental health and social development of children. With so many interactions occurring in the virtual space, kids missed out on the social and mental benefits that come with attending school and social interactions. Remote learning amplified disparities that previously existed, and sadly, for many children, home was not a safe space. The regular system of relying on teachers and doctors to report potential abuse and neglect not only wasn’t available, but in some cases, completely failed. Through our social media and fundraising campaigns, we’ve been working to shed a light on some of the challenges our pediatric partners are facing in addressing an increased need in mental health services, and to amplify the work enCourage Kids is doing to provide support and resources. There are hundreds of hospitals nationwide that rely on us, and we are especially committed to investing in hospitals with fewer resources and ensuring they and their patients have access to high-quality resources and tools.
IW: Congratulations! We understand that Cabrini awarded the enCourage Kids Foundation a grant for mental health challenges.
Michele Hall Duncan: Yes, thank you and we are so grateful for their generosity. The grant will fund a pilot program that will provide support to pediatric patients at city hospitals who suffer with mental health challenges, including but not limited to suicide ideation, self-harm, depression, and schizophrenia, to name a few.
IW: Mental Health Awareness is certainly a hot topic these days. Tell us how the child life specialists are working with hospitalized children to get them through their mental health challenges.
Mental health is a very big concern right now and we’ve seen a significant shift in focus to addressing it. One of the stark realities to come to light this past year and a half has been the impact of the pandemic on the mental health and social development of children. With so many interactions occurring in the virtual space, kids missed out on the social and mental benefits that come with attending school and social interactions. Remote learning amplified disparities that previously existed, and sadly, for many children, home was not a safe space. The regular system of relying on teachers and doctors to report potential abuse and neglect not only wasn’t available, but in some cases, completely failed. Through our social media and fundraising campaigns, we’ve been working to shed a light on some of the challenges our pediatric partners are facing in addressing an increased need in mental health services, and to amplify the work enCourage Kids is doing to provide support and resources. There are hundreds of hospitals nationwide that rely on us, and we are especially committed to investing in hospitals with fewer resources and ensuring they and their patients have access to high-quality resources and tools.
IW: On the programming side, what have you been working on?
Michele Hall Duncan: On the programming side, our focus from the beginning of the pandemic was to step in and help the communities that were inundated, providing the support and critical resources they uniquely needed, when they needed it. We partner with more than 300 hospitals nationwide including 130 in the NYC Metro area and their needs have varied from region to region over the past two years. Thanks to funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, we’re currently working with a panel of pediatric specialists from across the country to implement a program to provide pediatric patients with customized activity kits we call Mental Health Comfort Kits designed specifically to address some of the special mental health needs children are facing right now.
IW: Congratulations on the enCourage Kids Foundation 37th Anniversary Gala honoring the legacy of Jay Anderson. What a special night!
Michele Hall Duncan: Yes, it was a very special night! We were so excited to see how many guests, sponsors, and donors at the Gala after not being able to host live for the past two years. It truly was so special honoring the legacy of Jay Anderson who served on the organization’s Board of Directors for more than 20 years and most recently on its Chairman’s Circle. We are privileged to rename his favorite program The Jay Anderson Pediatric Hospital Support Fund in his memory. Jay served on our board of directors for 20 years and more recently, on our Chairman’s Circle. He really loved our cornerstone program, the Pediatric Hospital Support Program, and the impact it has on elevating the level of care our hospital partners can provide. enCourage Kids owes a huge debt to Jay and the Feil Family for their decades of support of this program. Since 1996, we’ve provided more than $16 million in funding for projects and programs such as creative therapies, pet therapy, playroom renovations, and technology that is used for distractive entertainment as well as education on diagnoses—many of which would not be funded at all without our support. We were very grateful to have the opportunity at our Gala to pay tribute to the invaluable contribution Jay made to our organization and the impact his support will have for years to come.
IW: We are excited that enCourage Kids will be hosting two very special events in the coming months.
Michele Hall Duncan: Yes, now that we are able to hold in-person events again, we’ve been working on our 19th Annual Golf Outing taking place on July 18th at The Mill River Club in Oyster Bay, Long Island and our signature tasting event, Serving Up Smiles, taking place on October 18th at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. Both events are exciting for our guests to attend and participate in and we truly look forward to seeing everybody there.
IW: As always, we are so grateful to interview with you and keep up with the outstanding work that you do for hospitalized children and their families across the country.
Michele Hall Duncan: Thank you so much! It is always a pleasure to speak with you and I truly appreciate you sharing our mission with your readers.
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