Our Community Partner this month is Beads of Courage, Arts in medicine for children with serious illnesses

Beads of Courage, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization committed to strengthening resilience and promoting the well-being of children coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them. Beads of Courage, Inc. achieves its mission through the development and implementation of innovative Arts-in-Medicine programs.

The Beads of Courage Program is a resilience-based intervention designed to support and strengthen children and families coping with serious illness. Through the program members tell their story using colorful beads as meaningful symbols of courage that they receive to honor and acknowledge each step of their treatment journey. Beads are given according to a program specific program bead guide. For milestones in their treatment journey, they receive handmade one-of-a-kind glass beads that are donated by members of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB).

The Beads of Courage® Program is available for the following:

• Cancer and Blood Disorders
• Cardiac Conditions
• Burn injuries
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
• Chronic Illness
• Adult Oncology (pilot)

Ongoing evaluation of the Beads of Courage® program indicates that the program helps to decrease illness-related distress, increase the use of positive coping strategies, helps members find meaning in illness, and restore sense of self in those coping with serious illness. The program also provides something tangible the member can use to tell about their experience during treatment and after.

Find out more on their website; http://www.beadsofcourage.org.

You too can apply to be a Journal Broadcast Group Community Partner, see details here.

Previous Journal Broadcast Group Community Partners Include:

• TMC / CMN MIX Miracles Radiothon
• TIHAN, Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network
• 88-CRIME
• Teen Outreach Arizona
• Literacy Connects
• Making Strides Against Breast Cancer - The American Cancer Society
• World Care
• Youth on Their Own
• Junior Achievement Arizona
• Arizona Families for Children
• Erik Hite Foundation
• I Am Tucson
• Handi-Dogs, Inc.
• The Ben's Bells Project
• The West Inc.
  
• The Loft Cinema
• Bag It!
• The UMC Trauma Center
• St. Elizabeth's Health Center Services
• Southern Arizona Children's Advocacy Center
• Community Gardens of Tucson
• Honor Flight Tucson
• The Haven
• Tucson Festival of Books
• Pima Council On Aging
• Blind & Deaf Children Foundation
• Make Way For Books
• Tucson Clean & Beautiful
• Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona
• Marshall Home for Men
• Reading Seed
• Gooter Foundation
• Child & Family Resources
• Tucson Girls Chorus
• Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
  
• Homicide Survivors