How we got our name: After Grandma died, Charlie said there's "a little bit of happy" in this, because for the last six months she wasn't living she was suffering. I think I'm stronger now. Little things don't get to me. I think it's a plus -  I can be there for other kids. | A.J. left, Grandma, Charlie right.
Vertical Divider
​‘A Little Bit of Happy’ is a start-up family advocacy project by us, Charlie and A.J. Poole with the help of our mom. Our full time caregiving roles started when we were in elementary school when we were 9 and 10 years old. Currently we are students at Landon School, and McLean High School in Virginia. We helped care for our grandmother at home during the last years of Alzheimer’s disease; she died in June of 2015. As advocates for kids who are caregivers, our mission is to bring 'a little bit of happiness' to the lives of youth caregivers. If you are a kid caregiving for someone with Alzheimer’s or anything else, like a parent with a debilitating disease, mental illness or addiction, we know this is probably one of the toughest times of your life, we hope to help you get through and maybe make a few things easier. You are not alone. During our caregiving days, it was like nobody understood, our friends, our teachers, nobody knows what it's like to live with someone who needs a lot of help unless you've been there. Nobody understands a caregiver like caregivers. We created this website so people can understand the problem. 
The Catholic Health Association of the United States published an article featuring our family and youth caregiving. ​'Children Who Give Care are Overlooked' - This article provides an overview of Caregiving Youth in the United States. This article was republished by The Mensa Bulletin.
We were invited to give a Keynote Speech about our experience caring for our grandmother at the American Association of Caregiving Youth's National Conference in Boca Raton Florida. We were humbled and excited to accept this honor. We didn't know where to start. The importance of telling our story as clearly as possible was important to us. We enlisted the help of a TedMed Speaking Coach named Peter Botting. Peter helped us shape our message, communicate for impact, and made sure we practiced our speech enough to truly make a meaningful connection with our audience, and deliver a message they remembered. We are forever grateful to him.
​​The complete transcript of the speech ​can be found here.
Working with Peter Botting via Skype from the U.K.