Bounce Childrens Foundation

TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF CHRONICALLY ILL CHILDREN, AND THEIR LOVED ONES, SHIFTING ALL FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING.

We envision the day when every chronically ill child, and his/her family in America is supported by

Goal One: Expand the number of Bounce families we serve in the Chicagoland area!

Goal Two: Extend the geographic footprint of the organization to serve chronically ill children/families outside of the Chicagoland area!

Goal Three: Raise the funds required to expand program capacity to support program expansion in all geographical areas.

Our CEO, Joan Steltmann, takes time weekly to meet with the team altogether and individually (2x/week) to check in, talk about personal and professional goals, and ask what team members may need from her, the organization, and co-workers to succeed. She encourages team members to have ownership over their own projects, while working collaboratively with others and asking for help when needed. She works with team members to create development plan to figure out where they want to be and how to get there. After losing a lot of people through COVID-19 (people moving back home and across the country), we discovered a positive--a more widespread reach of Bounce supporters/advocates across the country! Joan maintains relationships with everyone who has ever been a part of Bounce to keep them updated and give them opportunities to continue to support Bounce's mission.

Chronically ill children and their families were the first to shelter in place and the last to emerge from quarantine with the COVID-19 pandemic. Bounce kiddos are the definition of 'high risk'. When COVID-19 hit, we immediately pivoted our program platform to hold events and educational sessions online and amp up Bounce Back Kits® and conversation facilitation/peer support in Bounce Net®. We added extra Bounce Back Kits® to send to Bounce families during quarantine to give families fun family bonding activities and boredom busters. We created virtual programming for our Bounce Bash® and Bounce It Forward® events to keep families engaged, excited, and distracted from the world that felt like it was caving in on them. While we were all hunkered down at home, these virtual programs and our Bounce Net® online community were essential for families to connect with one another and feel less isolated in isolation.