Hero’s Path Palliative Care
Grants Awarded
Our program fosters community and outdoor equity by offering individualized environmental education to children with medical complexities and their families. By providing skilled nursing and expert educators at field days, we remove barriers to community access, enabling participants to feel valued in their local ecosystem and encouraging a commitment to environmental stewardship.
Hero’s Path Palliative Care offers outdoor environmental education for families with medically complex children, fostering reconnection with nature and community. Participants will gain STEAM skills and confidence through hands-on experiences, promoting exploration of local ecosystems in New Mexico. This program addresses the needs of families experiencing isolation, enhancing their mental and physical well-being while providing strategies to utilize natural spaces safely.
The desired non-profit program aims to offer outdoor environmental education to medically complex children, ensuring their safety through dedicated nursing support during the program. By utilizing the Nature Matters Academy's curriculum, which is designed and instructed by biologists with profound respect for local ecosystems, the program intends to cultivate an ethic of environmental stewardship among the participants.
Our program seeks to enhance awareness of accessible spaces in the greater Albuquerque area for families with children facing medical complexities and mobility challenges. By utilizing printed materials, social media, and hosting a resource fair, we aim to connect families with supportive environments, reducing isolation and fostering inclusion in the community.
The program focuses on providing outdoor education and respite for medically complex children and their families, helping to strengthen their relationships and enhance their engagement with the environment. Supportive services like nursing, specialized programming, psychosocial services, and music therapy help combat daily physical, medical, and emotional challenges. Activities such as exploring local trails, learning about the ecosystem, and promoting understanding of complex environmental relationships foster familial bonds, personal resilience, inclusion, and stewardship of local ecosystems. The acquisition of more knowledge about local ecosystems and flora and fauna is also encouraged, and barriers to access are addressed to improve outdoor visits and expand the life experiences of these children.
Hero’s Path Palliative Care exists to empower children with serious illness to live fully by providing outstanding, customized palliative care. We do this by providing compassionate, thoughtful, family-centered, home-based pediatric palliative care and offering resources, including respite, education, and networking to support children and families on their path to wellness. We currently offer outdoor nature education programs for the entire family, short-break (date) respite, and virtual family or individual emotional well-being support. Our program is supported by highly trained nurses with Thrive Skilled Pediatric Care to provide medical support. While there are over 80,000 children with special needs in New Mexico, there are zero respite services that provide nursing-level support in the state. In 2023, we served 20 families and aim to triple that impact in 2024. This support includes families who received weekly services to support stress reduction and healthy coping with their child’s medical trauma, support in navigating anticipatory grief as they understand the imminent death of a child, and hosted respite care opportunities. We believe that outdoor nature spaces provide an environment that augments their healing. Our team is comprised solely of volunteers as we stand up our impactful organization to provide ongoing support for this underserved community. While we provide these unique services in our area, we also partner with external organizations to serve these families through collaboration. We are planning, designing, and building a fully accessible sensory trail on the east side of Albuquerque (through the Trails + grant). This larger project is being completed in conjunction with the City of Albuquerque, Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District, Nature Matters Academy, and other partners. Broadening our community partnerships through collaboration allows us to be a voice and advocate for the community we are serving. As we work together, barriers are broken down, and awareness blossoms while fostering inclusion in our community.