Jenevieve’s Purpose is a non-profit that provides financial meal support for the parent of the child that has been admitted into Children’s Hospital. Families of medically fragile children struggle every day. Eating a good meal while at the hospital with their child shouldn’t be one of those struggles.
Who?
Kelli Payne, founder is a wife and mom of four boys, two with special needs. As a mom, Kelli needed a job with flexibility, so she got into real estate but realized she needed more to feel fulfilled. When God placed in her heart to start a non-profit to help the families of sick children at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, she started Jenevieve’s Purpose, named after a friend’s child who spoke to Kelli about the financial stress it is to a family of a child who gets admitted into the hospital for days if not weeks at a time. Shortly after that conversation the journey to the non-profit started in June 2018 and became official in January 2022. As part of her non-profit, every closing in real estate donates $500 to Jenevieve’s Purpose. Kelli looks forward to serving the community for many years to come.
Who does this non profit benefit?
The parent of the child that has been admitted into Children’s Hospital for a minimum of 48 hours and does not qualify for Ronald McDonalds housing. We are starting off in Colorado Springs and will eventually end up across all 50 states where there are Children’s Hospitals that are inpatient. As we expand, we will update the cities and states of who we are now able to serve. Children’s Hospital provides vouchers directly due to HIPPA laws and Jenevieve’s Purpose does not connect with the children directly.
When the parent of a child has been admitted into Children’s Hospital for a minimum of 48 hours and does not qualify for Ronald McDonald housing, Jenevieve’s Purpose fills the gap.
“There is a huge need for parents that sit in the hospital with their children and are losing time at work and are unable to eat due to no money,” said Payne. “We provide the funds directly to Children’s Hospital due to HIPAA laws and the hospital provides vouchers for the families to eat while they stay.”
What are some “ah ha” moments or statistics that people would be interested to learn about?
In Colorado we have a lot of special needs families moving here because the parent of the special needs child can get paid to be their caretaker. Not many states offer this option and one of the things I learned is when a special needs child gets admitted into the hospital their pay stops and their kids are sometimes in the hospital for weeks if not longer. If their pay stops and moving here away from family and they have no one to bring them something to eat while their child is in the hospital, they need help with getting a basic need met which is a decent meal to eat.
How do you plan to utilize the funds?
The funds will be mainly used to provide meals, but some funds will be used to maintain the website, social media marketing, grant writers. Eventually we will hire an employee to put the events together to raise funds for our non profit.
What’s your plan for growth and a goal for fundraising?
Our goal for the first year or two is to be able to provide one meal a day per bed. The following year we would like to do 2 meals and the following year do 3 meals and once we have been successful with that we will move on to the next hospital and do the same each time we expand to a new hospital.
We plan on doing different events like concerts, golf tournaments, black tie events, 5k marathons and any other event that could help us raise funds.
