Company Profile
Very Special Kids
Company Overview
Very Special Kids cares for children with life-threatening conditions by providing a children’s hospice and professional family support services.
We are a children’s charity that helps more than 900 families across Victoria who have a child with a life-threatening condition with ongoing support from diagnosis all the way through to recovery or bereavement. Sadly, many of the children we care for will not reach adulthood.
The free-of-charge family support services include counselling, advocacy, sibling support, bereavement support, networking and peer activities, trained family volunteers and specialist care at the Very Special Kids Hospice. Each family is supported in unique and varying ways according to their personal needs.
Our Very Special Kids Hospice is the only children’s hospice in Victoria where we offer families access to planned and emergency respite, as well as end-of-life care. The hospice provides 24-hour specialist nursing care in a warm and welcoming environment.
In addition to the children’s hospice and main offices in Malvern, Very Special Kids is committed to providing family support across Victoria through offices in Brunswick, Ballarat, Benidgo, Hastings, Shepparton, Torquay, Traralgon and Port Fairy.
It costs more than $7 million each year to operate Very Special Kids and we rely substantially on generous fundraising support from corporates and the community to provide our services free-of-charge to families. We have a calendar of engaging fundraising events, as well as a number of programs for you to donate to our important children’s charity, such as workplace giving, leaving a bequest and our regular giving program.
Very Special Kids was established in 1985 and we now have more than 90 staff and 480 volunteers to support these children and families through the hardest time of their lives.
Company History
Very Special Kids was established in 1985 and became the first support organisation in Victoria designed to offer assistance to families of children with life-threatening conditions.
A year earlier in 1984, two families met while caring for their children who were dying from leukaemia. Throughout the trauma of their children’s illnesses and deaths, the two families supported each other and recognised a need for additional support for families like theirs. At the time, there was no appropriate support for families of children with life-threatening conditions.
Over the next year many more parents came together because they saw the need to offer support to others who were experiencing similar trauma and grief. They also appreciated the complexities involved and that support should not be dependent solely on other parents.
Clear and immediate objectives were set, and the need to appoint a person to train volunteers was identified as a priority. It was agreed that with a band of trained volunteers, Very Special Kids would be more effective and able to reach out to the large number of existing and potential families who may need assistance.
In 1985, Sister Margaret Noone was the organisation’s first employee, becoming the Director and then eventually the Patron of Very Special Kids.
Benefits
Very Special Kids is committed to providing a positive, engaging experience for team members and offers a range of benefits to staff; from breadth in job roles, health & wellbeing programs, work flexibility provisions, to development and training opportunities and a range of discounts. We encourage you to learn more about why people love working with Very Special Kids and the great range of staff benefits that support a healthy balance between work, family and other commitments.