The Hope Project

Update:

Hey everybody! Thank you so much for your donations. We received the greatest news possible today from the state. We learned that our documentary helped influence the managed care plans who decided to not just include expressive therapy, but to expand it to the whole state of California! There’s also a strong possibility that the program will include the adult population as well, creating an even greater expansion than anticipated! We’ve reduced our initial GoFundMe goal to now reflect the costs of production for this documentary, as the managed care plans will be funding expressive therapy from this point on. Anything you feel compelled to donate for the production costs is so deeply appreciated.

With love from all of our hearts,

The Hope Project Team

Our Goal

Since late 2013, the Partners for Children Palliative Care Program has offered the expressive therapies of music, art, and massage therapy for or children in low-income families who have life threatening or critical prolonged illness. These services have profoundly changed the lives of these children and their families.

Starting January 2019, the state of California is launching a new Palliative Program that at this does not include the expressive therapies that made the old program so effective.

Our goal is to raise money to support the Hope Project, by funding expressive therapies for the children in the California’s Palliative Care Program . We hope to raise awareness and to inspire the state of California to maintain expressive therapies in their program starting January 2019.

What Is Palliative Care?

Palliative care is, in its most simplistic terms, comfort care. Traditionally it’s associated with hospice and end of life care, but in the context of our children, palliative, or comfort care, is life changing. In California’s state funded waiver program, Partners for Children, music, art, and massage therapy are offered as expressive therapies to comfort children with life threatening or critical prolonged illness. We’ve found that it greatly improves their quality of life, which we will demonstrate in our documentary.

The Documentary

The Hope Project was filmed in Los Angeles, sharing the stories of three families whose lives have been deeply impacted by their children’s life threatening and chronic illness. We interviewed these families, demonstrated expressive therapy in the home, and interviewed the therapists to gain a deeper insight into their daily lives and experiences, and how expressive therapies have changed their world.

Funding Breakdown

So where does all the money go?

Expressive Therapies for the new state funded Palliative Care Program.

$0.95 of every dollar will be used for the continuation of expressive therapies for the 3 families in the documentary as well as 16 more, so 19 in total! This would provide them with the six sessions per month of expressive therapy they received through the Partners for Children program for 1 full year. These donations could be filtered into the new program.
The remaining 5% would contribute to the funding of the film’s creation, and towards the creative people who helped like our editor, videographer, sound mixer, and composer.

Why Should I Donate?

The impact of these therapies on children with life-threatening and chronic long-term illness cannot be understated. As you can see in the documentary, and from hearing the testimonials of the parents themselves, these therapies can literally prevent hospital visits and trips to the Emergency Room.

It also helps the families out extensively because they are not typically able to afford these therapies which were previously provided by the government.

Meet The Team!

Cara Amenta

Cara is a board certified massage therapist from Chicago who specializes in pediatric massage. She has been working with UCLA’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine Team since 2012 and with the Partners for Children Program since its inception in 2013. She loves working with children and uses a compassionate approach to guide them to be more in tune with their bodies and embrace their unique health journeys. She is thrilled to be a part of The Hope Project and hopes this will inspire the state and the medical community to include expressive therapies after seeing how transformative they are for the families.

Ivy Tan

Ivy, a Malaysian board-certified music therapist working full time with the Partners for Children Program. Graduated from Berklee College of Music, she strongly believes in treating the client as a whole and the importance of family-centered approach in her sessions. With a heart for children in palliative care, she sincerely hopes that The Hope Project will be a platform to demonstrate the power of expressive therapies and to raise its awareness in our society. These powerful stories have greatly touched her life, and she hopes to see a continuation growth in this field so that more families could be greatly impacted by it.

Tom Nolle

Tom Nolle directed The Hope Project documentary, and is an Emmy-award winning editor living in Los Angeles, California. While filming these families, he was greatly moved by the stories of how the children are greatly impacted by simply having expressive therapies available. A single massage, painting session, or music therapy session brought smiles and laughter to everyone’s faces. He thinks these children deserve these therapies more than anything.

Thank you so much!

From the bottom of our hearts at The Hope Project, we believe in this cause and thank you so much for your generous donations!