Goals

Kid Support™ aims to reach young people living with cancer in the family in communities nationwide by offering a 12-session adult-led, peer-support program for children ages four to twelve. Kid Support groups are designed to:

• Provide young people with age-appropriate information about cancer and its treatment
  
  What children imagine to be true about cancer and its treatment is often much worse than the actual facts.

• Address common cancer-related misconceptions
  
  Many children believe, for example, that cancer is contagious or that they could have done something to cause the cancer.

• Promote children's discussion about what they are feeling and experiencing
  
  Contact with peers who are also living with cancer in the family reduces children's feelings of isolation. Our groups provide a safe place for identifying and normalizing difficult feelings, and assistance in finding solutions or alternative perspectives for common cancer-related problems.
  
  

• Teach children coping skills, including relaxation skills, social problem-solving skills, and  assertiveness skills, e.g., how to negotiate

Learning how to relax the mind and body, and how to communicate needs directly and clearly, are both key means of managing stress.

• Promote family communication about cancer
  
  Children react to parental stress, even when parents attempt to hide their distress. Kid Support provides helpful information for parents and actively strives to promote more open communication between children and parents.