Group Helping Disabled Kids Now in Need of Help

HOUSTON - No one ever sees it coming.

Child rearing dreams shredded by a wrenching diagnosis and the hard realities that come on it's tail.

"Deeply challenged, irreversibly disabled'' are the labels their kid will carry a lifetime.
For single parents like, Jim Franklin, that blow, was just the beginning.

"My marriage didn't survive. You give all, you give everything you've got," he says.

Everything for Jaimie. Aside from when he's working, barely a minute goes by when Jim is not at his daughter's side. You see, there is no one else.

Unmistakable on his weary face, the markings of emotional wear and tear.

"You give her the best life that you can, it's very difficult," he adds.

"They are desperate, they are desperate for respite, desperate for care," says Karen Jaggers Executive Director of the Houston Area Respite Center.

Desperate for the dose of temporary deliverance offered exhausted parents each and every Friday.

Into the hands of trusted volunteers and trained staff at two locations, go the kind of kids and young adults very few sitters, can safely handle.

It is this "rarity" of competent, affordable care which transforms a parent into a prisoner of a child's disability.

"I think its hard for a standard baby sitter to understand what these guys might do or might not do, to be accepting and gentle with them," says longtime HARC volunteer Lynne Tupper.

While the sheer range and severity of the disabilities can be daunting, parents accustomed to trusting no one, come to know quickly, that at HARC, their kids will be okay.

"We can take care of these kids. They can be safe with us for four hours and the parents can really get a night off," adds Tupper as a young man with severe mental challenges holds her hand and a young boy with autism rests his head peacefully in her lap.

So while Jamie Franklin plays dress-up with caregivers, her dad Jim gets the gift of time.

"Maybe have a cup of coffee, its nice not to have an agenda, just not to do anything is a lot of fun for me," explains Franklin.

Most parents use this break for simple things. Some indulge in a long shower, others a decent nap. On this night Jim Franklin scampers into a Target store to shop for Jamie.

"I can have an independent thought. Last week I went to the movies. I fell asleep, but it was great," he explains with a smile.

At the HARC locations the children usually play non-stop for four hours, giving kids a break from devoted, but worn down moms and dads while their parents retreat for psychological mending.

"It can take your breath away at times," insists Paula Davis, a single mom with a special needs son.

"You can really reflect and say I'm okay, we are okay," she says of the time away from child care gifted by HARC.

Demand for this kind of reprieve is exploding.

"I could open 20 different respite centers and still not meet the need," say Jaggers.

Unfortunately, funding has dried up. By the end of March the non-profit Houston Area respite center will be all but broke.

These "rest givers" say they need help, or the healing they offer could end.

-- Learn More About HARC: http://www.harchouston.com/