Topics & Perspectives

Bryan’s House—A Place of Hope

Bryans House logo1 transparent 2Bryan’s House was established in 1988 to serve infants, young children, and their mothers who were dying or impacted by HIV/AIDS.

In the last eight years, Bryan’s House has evolved into an IMPACT agency, developing progressive and accessible pathways to inclusion to better serve at-risk children with special medical, domestic, and educational needs, including those children with blood disorders, across eight North Texas counties.

More than 143 diagnoses, including rare diseases, are served onsite, at the West Dallas campus.

Other services include early childhood development, summer and spring break camps, intensive case management, and homeless prevention.

Bryan’s House teams are changing children’s trajectories for life and revolutionizing the ‘medical-special education-therapy-family support’ model of care. Bryan’s House is recognizaed as an innovator and a favored charity for global companies around the globe.

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Aluska and her sister

Bryan’s House is the only agency in North Texas providing a unique combination of services for unhoused or at-risk children with special needs, including daily medically managed early childhood development (from birth to age five) onsite through a trauma-informed HighScope curriculum, in addition to offsite case management for up to age 21.

Onsite therapies and holistic family support services are afforded to help families thrive. Social Service programs help negate homelessness and provide basic needs, workforce solutions, further education access, job skills training, financial and budgeting expertise, and healthy eating/cooking classes. Case Managers have helped families go from homeless to hopeful to homeowners through Bryan’s House.

The Bryan’s House nationally accredited onsite Early Childhood Education Program integrates medically managed childcare with an enrichment curriculum, social-emotional learning, physical development, and family support. As authentic nurturers, the Bryan’s House team is a leader in the field.

In recent years, Bryan’s House has served as a lab school for student practicums, providing enrichment opportunities for therapy students from the University of Texas at Dallas. Bryan’s House also offers in-class observations for students from the Dallas Nursing Institute, Chamberlain Nursing School, and Concorde Nursing School.

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Damian and friend

What’s more, Bryan’s House leaders developed a unique hybrid special education/classroom care model for the Dallas Independent School District. And Bryan’s House is the first agency in the district’s history to provide PPCD (Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities) services in a non-elementary school setting.

Bryan’s House is always in need of caring volunteers to carry out its mission — To provide underserved children in North Texas with specialized medical, educational, and therapeutic care and holistic support services for families to thrive.

This is an excellent opportunity to get involved — the kids will love it, and so will you.

For more details about Bryan’s House, and for volunteer opportunities, go to www.bryanshouse.org.
 

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Abigail Erickson-Torres

Abigail Erickson-Torres is a native Australian, who immigrated to the US in 1998 and moved to Dallas in 2005. She has raised approximately $155 million in her 24 years working with nonprofits in the USA. Abigail completed courses at the Yale University School of Management, and The Bush School at Texas A&M Center for Non Profits & Philanthropy. She was appointed as an Advisory Board Member and asked to Chair the foundational Childhood Committee on Disabilities for the North Texas Disabilities Chamber. Abigail began her role at Bryan’s House in 2016. In the past 5.5 years, with her teams, they have served 15,800 children and family members (duplicated) with special health, education, and domestic needs, rebranded the agency, expanded programs, and impacted many lives.

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