KIDS ARE CAREGIVERS TOO
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ABOUT


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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, so we decided on the name A Little Bit of Happy - because we want to provide kids who are caregiving "a little bit of happiness" by knowing they aren't alone. | Note - we added the organization name of Kids are Caregivers Too in 2018.

We helped care for our grandmother at home during the last years of Alzheimer's disease; she died in June 2015. As advocates for kids who are caregivers, our mission is to bring a little bit of happiness to the lives of caregiving youth.

Suppose you are a kid caregiving for someone with Alzheimer's or anything else, like a parent with a debilitating disease, mental illness, or addiction. In that case, we know this is probably one of the toughest times of your life. 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 like caregivers.

We created this website so people can understand the problem, and we work with other organizations to advocate for awareness and develop solutions for Caregiving Youth in the United States.
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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.

The Speech


We were invited to give a Keynote Speech in 2017 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.

We first gave the speech in 2017. We updated the speech and gave it again in February of 2020. We continue to seek opportunities to talk about our experience and caregiving youth issues overall.

We updated the speech. Kids are Caregivers Too | Alzheimer's Caregiving Speech | Brain Bowl 2020 | Boca Raton, Florida​ | 
PRESS RELEASE 2-10-2020

2017 Speech | American Association of Caregiving Youth Conference
​Charlie Poole, age 14 | A.J. Poole age 13
2020 Speech | Brain Bowl, Boca Raton
​Charlie Poole, age 17 | A.J. Poole age 15

TedMed Speaker Coach Peter Botting


Working with Peter Botting via Skype from the U.K.
The complete transcript of the speech ​can be found here.
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2017 | Working with Peter Botting on the Caregiving Youth Speech
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2020 | Working with Peter Botting on the Caregiving Youth Speech

Advocacy


​AACY was honored to attend Representative Barbara Lee’s 118th Congress Open House on the opening day of the new Congress.
Former Caregiving Youth Charlie and A.J. Poole delivered Certificates of Appreciation to the offices of Representative Barbara Lee, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee to thank them for Co-Sponsoring 117th Congress H.Con.Res. 114, a resolution introduced by Representative Lois Frankel that was successfully passed to raise awareness and encourage national recognition of children and adolescents under 18 years of age who serve(d) as a primary or secondary caregiver for family or household members. Co-Sponsoring Representative states include California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and North Carolina.
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The boys take every opportunity to advocate for Caregiving Youth in honor of their time helping care for their grandmother through hospice in their home when they were kids. They hope to lighten the load & help increase recognition for over 5.4 million other kids across the US who are currently doing the same.

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A.J. Poole 'This I Believe Speech' | On Caregiving for His Grandmother | Landon School  & Holton-Landon Leadership Symposium 2019 | Working on Awareness and Advocacy for Caregiving Youth Issues 
We advocate for and communicate our goals for Caregiving Youth wherever the opportunity arises. We would love to have other kids join us!

We are both busy with sports and school, so we try to include caregiving youth issues whenever we have relevant assignments to include information on the issue. We also gave a speech in Middle School on the subject for The American Association of Caregiving Youth National Conference. We are also available for public speaking engagements on the issue as time allows.

Our Story in Pictures


Our grandmother's home. We went to visit here on every vacation from 2008 until she moved in with us in 2013.
Driving home to Champaign Illinois to take care of mom/grandma.
Clark Park - the park we played in at grandma's house.
Driving home to Champaign Illinois to take care of mom/grandma.
This was the day when the doctor realized that grandma needed home healthcare to assist her with her memory and health issues.
Looking out the window from mom's hospital bed in Urbana Illinois. Mom was out of sorts, it was clear that we had a very serious situation on our hands, her Alzheimer's was getting worse and she was no longer safe to live alone.
A sad selfie. I had never felt more overwhelmed in my whole life. My mom loved her home. She was surrounded by friends in Champaign who were like family. She fell and was found by my dad's best friend Jim who made a point to check in on her. The healthcare team we paid hadn't checked on her when they were supposed to. Should I keep her in Champaign? Move her to a nursing home?
After a lot of research and conversation and thought - we decided to move mom home with us. Her Alzheimer's was only going to advance.
Copyright © 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 kidsarecaregiverstoo.com (TM) alittlebitofhappy.org (TM) and kidcaretakers.com (TM) | All Rights Reserved
There Are More Than Five Million Kids in the United States Who Live With and Help Provide Daily Care for Household Members With a Physical or Mental Illness, Disability, or Frailty Associated With Aging,  Disease, or Other Condition. Nobody understands a caregiver like caregivers. We created this website to serve as a resource for the understanding of the problem, and to help motivate people, and facilitate educational, government, and healthcare organizations to identify/create opportunities to help solve it.
  • Goals
  • About Us
  • Press
  • Video
  • Resources
  • Truth
  • Contact
  • Service Hours