AgapéCare Cradle is a special nonprofit licensed funeral center in
AgapéCare was founded as an idea in 1997 by a newborn intensive care RN who attended mortuary school following the sudden tragic death of a baby boy born to close personal friends. AgapéCare Cradle has developed into a model program designed that meets funeral and memorial service needs inherently unique to parents who suffer the loss of a baby.
About 100 stillbirths and infant deaths occur naturally in Sedgwick county each year. Grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, other extended family, friends of the families, co-workers, colleagues and employers are all impacted by these losses. AgapéCare Cradle receives on average, 2 – 3 requests for services each month since it opening it’s doors in the summer of 2006. We believe every family who suffers through the death of a baby family member, needs the love and sensitive professional assistance receive through AgapéCare’s special program. We receive families on the basis of availability of volunteer staff and supplies, without regard to income or other qualifiers.
We recognize death to be a difficult and uncomfortable topic, and hope to help you to understand through the information on our website, the great need for AgapéCare Cradle’s compassionate ministry to brokenhearted mothers and fathers.
Parents who lose their baby son or daughter, often leave the hospital with only a few people even realizing that the birth, let alone the death, even occurred. Without any public advertising whatsoever, AgapéCare Cradle is not receive far more requests from families, than we are able to assist.
Health professionals, family and friends of parents, and even funeral homes are giving our phone number out to bereaved parents, without fully understanding our need for financial support to build capacity to serve more families through our unique program.
As a provider of specialized mortuary services helping families during the crisis of losing a baby, we request everyone, especially health providers and faith communities whose patients and members benefit from our service, and who are indicating they desire our service to be available evidenced by them giving our number to families, to consider one time and monthly contributions that will help us build capacity to help more families.
While we are humbled at the response to the intensive care we provide, (almost every family we have served has asked about volunteering or become an active volunteer for Agape’Care), AgapéCare’s expense to make it’s program available to one family is approximately $1,000. Our cost whether we receive families or not, just to maintain a physical location (rent, utilities, phone, fax, etc …) is about $1,000 per month and growing. We are staffed by generous giving volunteers not paid staff and at this time especially need to hire regular staff to be able to meet the growing demand for our program.
We expect both the immediate and long term benefit of AgapéCare Cradle , will be less anxiety, fear and depression commonly described by parents following the loss of their baby both following the loss and also during subsequent pregnancy and parenting.
As a practical matter, standard mortuaries handle mostly adult deaths. AgapéCare’s specialized mortuary alternative is funded through donations, gifts and grants, rather than sales, and compassionately assists bereaved mothers and fathers through this most troubling time in their lives. AgapéCare Cradle dignifies each baby through respectful services to recognize and honor the baby as a valuable and worthy person, precious and uniquely irreplaceable.
Thank you for considering to financially assist AgapéCare Cradle to become 100% available to bereaved parents in Sedgwick County.
With kind regards,
///SIGNED///
Shannon S. Barnes
Executive Director