Volunteering Opportunities with Haven House Children's Hospice

About

Haven House Children's Hospice was first conceived in the early 1990s, as the brainchild of Sue Irwin, a registered nurse and health visitor, who with friends and colleagues founded the charity to provide care to life-limited children and their families at no cost to them. Today, Haven House has supported over 600 families, looking after children and young people aged from birth to 19 years old who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. Residential and community services extend across North and North East London, West Essex and East Hertfordshire, including respite and end-of-life care. In the hospice children benefit from play activities as well as day and overnight stays. Through the Holistic Care Centre, opened in September 2014, children can access a range of therapies, including music therapy, physiotherapy and therapeutic yoga. Families can also take advantage of support groups for mums and dads and siblings (Buddies) as well as complementary therapies designed to reduce stress and anxiety. In our grounds there is a fully accessible specialist play area and tranquil sensory garden surrounded by many acres of beautiful woodland. To support families we rely on a number of good relationships with our statutory partners including the NHS and local authority commissioners; and in recent years, effort has been focused on developing awareness of the hospice in the local area to increase voluntary donations. Through the generosity and support of individuals and businesses in the area, we are now in as strong a financial position as we have ever been. This allows us to be optimistic about the future and aspire to, and implement, significant investment in our services to provide more services for more life-limited and life-threatened children in our local communities.