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The educational video, “FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT DURING CRISIS,” was designed to empower parents and guide them through the complexities of hospital services, insurance claims, personal family budgeting and negotiation and communication with creditors; also, for health care professionals as a sensitivity training tool to help them understand the experiences of families with critically ill children.

After years of working as director of the organization, Peggy Dolan recognized that the mission had to be developed more in order to make an impact on the families that were its focus. Beside financial assistance, education needed to be included in the mission in an effort to empower parents and bring some control back into their lives.

It became obvious to Peggy that many parents did not understand what help “social workers” could provide. Proud parents would not ask for help even when money or income were insufficient to cover mounting unmanageable bills. She knew that some parents were young and incapable of managing money under normal situations let alone during the stressful life a seriously ill baby or child would present. Therefore, she developed the concept and groundwork for an educational program for financial management during crisis that was first presented at a parent’s conference for parents of children with cancer.

The conference was sponsored by the American Cancer Society’s Childhood Cancer Committee in Philadelphia in 1992. The success of this unique workshop evolved into the production of a 24 minute video entitled, Financial Management During Crisis, suitable for families caring not only for children with cancer but any serious or chronic illness, disability or injury. The video was produced and funded by the Nemours Foundation with an initial grant for development provided by The Independence Foundation. The video program received national attention when a Philadelphia Inquirer article, featured in the Health and Science section of the newspaper on May 22, 2000, entitled “Surviving a sick child’s bills” was picked up on the Associated Press wire and published in 70 newspapers around the country.