Locations

Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Washington, DC

Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC

Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Inova Children’s Hospital, Falls Church, VA

Inova Children’s Cancer Program, Falls Church, VA

Methodist Children’s Hospital, and Children’s Cancer and Blood Center, San Antonio, TX

New York Presbyterian Hospital, NYC

The Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai, Baltimore, MD

Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD

The Tracy’s Kids Approach

The Tracy’s Kids Approach

Tracy’s Kids engages with young patients, their siblings, and parents using a wide variety of art supplies to empower them to express feelings and reflect on their treatment experiences. The program — which began at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital in 1991 and is based on the model developed there — employs Master’s-trained art therapists to address the multi-faceted needs of children with cancer through art and play therapy. The art therapists work directly with physicians, nurses, and other medical personnel and are integrated as members of each child’s treatment team.

The program — which is offered at no charge to patients and their families — works in hospitals, freestanding clinics, and other appropriate settings. Our goal is to provide a child-centered, open studio approach for inpatients and outpatients and to interact with the children while they are receiving infusions and other treatments. We welcome the chance to work with siblings and parents because we know that the entire family is affected when a child has cancer.

Our Impact

  • Tracy’s Kids has been serving kids and their families for over 20 years, and as of 2019 we will have granted more than $6,000,000 to our hospital partners to provide art therapy to children.
  • We serve an estimated 13,000 persons annually, including at least 5,000 pediatric patients, as well as their family members.
  • In 2019, working with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, we opened our 8th Tracy’s Kids program at the DC area’s premiere military medical center and support service members by caring for their littlest warriors.
  • Tracy’s Kids also serves children with blood disorders, including at, Children’s National Medical Center which serves the nation’s second-largest pediatric sickle cell patient population.
  • Today, well over 80% of children diagnosed with cancer will beat the disease and live the overwhelming majority of their lives cancer free. Tracy’s Kids is dedicated to helping to ensure that the children we serve are ready to live happy and fulfilling lives.
  • Read the words of patients, parents, and doctors to learn the impact that this work has on each child we serve.
  • It is not unusual for me to walk into the clinic and see children with infusions in their arms, crayons in their hands, and smiles on their faces.
    -Aziza T. Shad, M.D.
     Ellen W.P. Wasserman Chair of Pediatrics
     The Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai

More Information

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