Hand to Hold, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, carefully matches seasoned parents of preemies (Helping Hands) with parents in need of support. These peer-to-peer relationships inspire hope and offer the chance to ask personal questions and receive support from someone who is uniquely familiar with the experience of preterm birth, life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a child born with special health care needs, loss of pregnancy and/or infant loss.
Hand to Hold provides ongoing support, education and navigation resources to parents and serves to fill the service gap that currently exists for families who have had a child in the NICU or who experienced a loss. By providing a holistic approach to preemie care in partnership with leaders in the field of prematurity and child health and development, Hand to Hold has the power to improve the lives of parents of preemies, babies born with special health care needs and those that experience a loss due to these challenges. Services provided directly to parents are done free of charge.
Hand to Hold Programs:
- Helping Hands Peer-to-Peer Support
- NICU Resource Library
- “Meet the Provider” Patient Education
- Care Webpages
- Sibling Support and Sibling Sundaes Program
- NICU Support Groups
- NICU Respite through Ronald McDonald Family Rooms
- Preemie Power Photo & Essay Contest
- Preemie Babies 101 Parent Blog
- Bereavement Support
- Searchable, Online Resource Directory
- Social Media connections on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube.
- A growing online library of information, articles, family stories, and more.
Hand to Hold’s Community Values
Hand to Hold is active in the NICU support community. Hand to Hold was the recipient of the 2012 National Perinatal Association’s Becky Hatfield Award for NICU Parent Support for our innovative and effective approach to NICU parent support. Hand to Hold is an active member of the National Perinatal Association and its Family Advocacy Network. Hand to Hold is a founding member of the Preemie Parent Alliance and active in the National Premature Infant Health Coalition. Hand to Hold leaders are regularly invited to speak at local, regional and national conferences and grand rounds sharing a parent’s experience, long-term effects that trauma has on the family unit after a NICU stay or loss, and effective ways to support families through a NICU experience. See more partnerships and collaborations and where we’ve been making connections.
Hand to Hold values its collaborative partnerships with professional organizations that promote and support professionalism in the nonprofit and business community.
- Hand to Hold collaborates with the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas which mat
ches new start-up organizations with ways to volunteer and give back to the Central Texas community. - Hand to Hold is a member of Greenlights, a catalyst for extraordinary nonprofit performance, bringing leading practices in management and governance to strengthen Central Texas nonprofits.
Hand to Hold is a member of the I Live Here, I Give Here Campaign which is on a mission to boost local giving by educating fellow Austinites about the needs in Central Texas and the organizations working to meet those needs through outreach and donor education.
