ABOUT
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.
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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. |
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.
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.
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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 |
2017 | Working with Peter Botting on the Caregiving Youth Speech
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2020 | Working with Peter Botting on the Caregiving Youth Speech
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
