Mar 9, 2018
Jeannine Hamilton, serving other special-needs families with a break!
The Kickass Single Mom Grant is sponsored by GoBankingRates— your partner in financial freedom. Go to gobankingrates.com/singlemom sign up for their awesome financial information newsletter. For signing up, you’re automatically entered to win a copy of my best selling book, the Kickass Single Mom and Nicole Lapin’s the Boss Bitch. You need both those books in your life.!
###
In this episode, we hear from Kickass Single Mom Grant winner Jeannine Hamilton, 43, of Little Rock, Ark., is a single-mom of three. As the mother of an 8-year-old daughter with autism, she knows first-hand the financial, emotional and logistical challenges parents of these special kids face for simple tasks like shopping, house care — not to mention getting a break. That is why she started WE-CARE, an organization that provides free respite care for special needs families, and serves as a coordination point for all area organizations. She is also a new entrepreneur.
In her grant application, Jeannine wrote:
When I worked for the University of Central Arkansas at the Division of Outreach and Community Engagement, I suddenly realized that I could help solve a very important problem: Arkansas does not provide respite care as part of Medicaid services for families who take care of children with special needs. Many of these families are financially strapped and lack the ability to hire qualified babysitters.
My idea was to form a network between area nonprofits who try to provide respite care to special need families and the University. This network provides a central calendar of respite events of all the organizations in the network for these families and the University would become one of these organizations by utilizing students who already major in fields that work with families with special needs. The college students get important supervised "in the field" experience and the families receive free, quality and qualified respite care. Also, it is one of only two secular organizations in the network which helps to serve those families who are not comfortable with respite care in a church or religion different than their own.
In this episode we discuss:
- What motivated Jeannine to start WE-CARE
- The unique child- and self-care challenges special-needs families face regarding child care
- Jeannine's advice to special needs families, no matter where you are located
- How Jeannine structures her day and week to find time to serve others
Conclusion
Learn more about WE-CARE