Child Advocacy

Children's Miracle Network
The Children's Miracle Network (CMN) runs CMN Champions - a year-round fundraising effort dedicated to helping sick and injured kids. The founding pledge of CMN is to keep 100 percent of donations in the community and to put children first in all that the organization does. Each year CMN organizes and executes special events in communities across Vermont, New York and New Hampshire. CMN depends on public support to provide funding for a range of clinical, research and educational programs to assist patients, families, and the communities served by Vermont Children's.

Ronald McDonald House
Since 1984, The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Burlington has supported children and families throughout the region. The organization offers overnight accommodations in downtown Burlington, providing a home away from home for families with children at Vermont Children's Hospital. The Ronald McDonald Family Room, an extension of the Ronald McDonald House is located in our inpatient pediatric unit and is staffed with volunteers. It provides refuge for families in a home-like setting while at Vermont Children's. This room serves all families with children hospitalized at Vermont Children's Hospital.

Vermont Family Network (formerly Parent to Parent of Vermont)
Vermont Family Network offers many programs to nurture, support and advocate on behalf of families whose children have chronic or life-threatening illness or disability, or have been born prematurely. This organization has staff available to offer support, information and referrals to resources, and they match parents with trained volunteer parents whose child shares a similar diagnosis. These Supporting Parents offer their experience and resources, helping their peers through difficult times and breaking through the isolation as they care for a child with significant health challenges.

Vermont Initiative on Rural Emergency Medicine
Physicians from the Vermont Children's Hospital participate in a Vermont-based initiative to provide education and training to physicians and pre-hospital providers throughout Vermont and northern New York in the field of emergency medicine. This effort utilizes contemporary telemedicine techniques to provide instruction and instantaneous long-distance consultation to regional hospitals for the immediate care of children.

Community Health Improvement
Vermont Children's works with Community Health Improvement to coordinate such projects as a dental program and a school-based health center at area schools, as well as providing significant support for the Winooski Summer Food Program, injury prevention activities and universal newborn hearing screening.