Discover the Art of Healing
Book by Book
Siblings giggle over a “Dork Diaries” in the reading nook. A parent finds a moment to close their eyes in a comfortable chair. A nurse sings and reads to a patient from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. The Panda Cares Center of Hope, the Family Resource Center at Children’s National, provides comfort and a place to escape.
“It can be hard to be in the hospital,” says Allie Slocum, patient family library and resource coordinator and former patient at Children’s National. “With a book, a kid can end up at Hogwarts, at Camp Half-Blood with Percy Jackson or hanging out with ‘Pete the Cat.’”
Reading, she says, teaches empathy and about different ways of life. It also improves language development. These opportunities are one way we take care of the whole family.
Books have the power to nourish children and families and enrich the spirit.
― Allie Slocum
The Family Resource Center is part of our Child Life and Integrative Services department. It opened in its current location, on the second floor of the hospital, in 2019. During the pandemic, programming shifted to virtual offerings. The space then reopened with tidy shelves lined with new literature in a variety of languages for patients and families to enjoy and take home. A robust programming schedule includes Dr. Bear’s Book Fair, a book delivery cart and themed story times, including “Story Tails” with the hospital’s pet therapy teams.
“Patients want to spend time here. They want to talk about what they’re reading and ask for recommendations,” says Slocum. She recalls a teen who won a basket of books during the hospital’s second book fair. “She told me she’d never won anything in her life. We poured over each book together, and she couldn’t believe they were hers to keep. No one in her life had ever recommended she visit a library or noticed that she had the spirit of a reader within her.”
Slocum says this special resource in the hospital raises children’s spirits and provides an opportunity to improve equity. She recently read “Angelina Ballerina” to a nonverbal patient bound to her bed. “Even though she couldn’t move, I could feel her elation,” Slocum says. This inspired Slocum to expand the bedside reading program to include patients with the same experience and circumstances. Storytelling, she believes, has a way of reaching everyone.
“Every kid deserves that calm, quiet connection that reading a book together brings. The Family Resource Center is a space for every kid. Every patient, every sibling is welcome. Everyone gets a book. And if you can’t get here, we’ll come to you. It’s all thanks to generous donors. We could not do this without philanthropy.”
The Family Resource Center is a space for every kid. Every patient, every sibling is welcome. Everyone gets a book. And if you can’t get here, we’ll come to you.
― Allie Slocum
Creating Connections
- Talk to people about donating books
- Organize and train volunteers
- Develop a web-based reading program
- Expand partnerships and programming with educational and literacy organizations such as PBS Kids and the Barbara Bush Foundation
- Help kids connect with their public libraries
- Network with family resource centers in other pediatric hospitals
- Brainstorm ideas related to a poetry and open mic night program for teenagers
- Help start a book club in our Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
- Collaborate with certified child life specialists to support individual patients’ mental health
Make a Difference
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