What is the goal of Parental Hope?
Parental Hope is a Cincinnati-based non-profit that is operated by volunteers who have been personally impacted by infertility. Parental Hope’s mission is to help couples battling infertility by raising awareness and helping to alleviate the emotional and financial burden of infertility as follows:
- Raising awareness. Infertility impacts a significant number of couples (1 out of every 8 couples), yet it still lacks mainstream awareness. We hope to give a voice to those battling infertility by educating the community through events, social media, and traditional media outlets.
- Alleviating the emotional roller-coaster. We are planning a support group starting this Summer for both men and women battling infertility. These laid back meetings will be a night away from the stress of infertility. The meetings will also be an opportunity to meet others and seek advice on how best to cope.
- Alleviating the financial burden of infertility through the Parental Hope Family Grant. Because most insurance policies do not cover infertility treatment, costs for treatment can be high. Recipients of the grant must have an infertility diagnosis and demonstrate a financial need. These Grants cover the full cost of one round of IVF at the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) in Cincinnati. In 2017, we are expanding the Parental Hope Family Grant to cover the full cost of a frozen embryo transfer (FET) as well. Over the past year, we have given out three Grants. We hope to double that amount in 2017.
What steps are you taking to reach those goals?
Parental Hope participates in various fundraising events throughout the year, but our primary annual fundraising event takes place during National Infertility Awareness Week. “Journey to Parenthood: A Cocktail Journey to Battle Infertility” will be held April 29th at the Centennial Barn from 7:00-11:00 pm. The event will be an evening of designer cocktails and tasty food from around the world. IRH has generously donated a full round of IVF with medication to be raffled off at the event. Each raffle tickets costs only $100 and only 200 will be sold. More information about the event and IVF raffle may be found on the Parental Hope website.
In addition to fundraising events, we are reaching the community through Social Media and acting as a resource to traditional news media outlets locally on the topic of infertility.
What is your partnership with the IRH?
Parental Hope has an exclusive partnership with IRH to provide all medical services to our Grant recipients. Also, as part of this partnership, IRH has agreed to provide the medical services at a reduced cost to Parental Hope, which has allowed us to help many more couples that we could otherwise. With respect to the day-to-day management of Parental Hope and decisions regarding choosing a Grant recipient, Parental Hope is completely independent of IRH.
What is the process for applying for an IVF grant for infertility?
The most difficult job we have as an organization is choosing the grant recipients. We take a look at the applicant’s financial situation, their infertility diagnosis, and their infertility journey. Most of our applicants clearly demonstrate a financial need, so each applicant’s essay and interview become extremely important. An Applicant does not have to be a current patient of IRH.
All eligibility requirements and instructions on how to file an Application can be found on our website. This year’s application deadline is August 1, 2017.
In what ways can the community get involved?
We are currently looking for around 20 volunteers for the upcoming Journey to Parenthood event. All volunteers will need to agree to work a two-hour shift, but will receive a complimentary ticket to the event as appreciation for volunteering. In addition, we are always looking for volunteers that can help throughout the year with event planning, fundraising and marketing.