Our Programs
Hearts and Paws Foundation is a private operating foundation: we conduct our charitable work ourselves rather than making grants to other organizations. We currently conduct one program — the Family Care Home Program — for families whose children have significant medical or special-education needs. Every program service is free of charge.
Housing and a therapy-ready home
When a child needs sustained medical treatment or therapy, families are often forced to choose between living near that care and having a stable, suitable home. The Family Care Home Program removes that trade-off. The Foundation owns a single-family home in Sunnyvale, California and provides it rent-free to one eligible family at a time.
What it provides: transitional rent-free housing for up to twelve months, renewable, with no rent and no deposit; and an accessible, therapy-ready home, where the Foundation installs and maintains accessibility improvements, child-safety features, and sensory and therapeutic fixtures at its own expense.
Who it serves: families with a child aged 0–17 (through 21 if in special-education or transition services) who has a significant medical condition, developmental disability, or special-education need, receiving care in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Animal-assisted visits and family pet care
Animals help children through long courses of treatment. Two of the Family Care Home Program’s services support the whole family, including its animals — and both are available to eligible families whether or not they are living in the program home.
Animal-assisted family visits. Recurring visits by insured, credentialed therapy animals, held at the program home for the resident family and, as capacity allows, for other eligible families. Visits are scheduled with the family and always supervised.
Family pet care support. Vaccination and microchip packages and emergency veterinary assistance for the household pets of eligible families, so that a family under medical and financial strain does not have to give up a companion animal. Assistance is always paid directly to a licensed veterinary clinic — never in cash.
Who it serves: animal-assisted visits are for families that meet the Family Care Home Program eligibility criteria, whether or not they are living in the program home; families on the housing waitlist are eligible in the meantime. Pet care support reaches further: any family in the service area that has a household pet and a child with a significant medical, developmental, or special-education need may apply, whether or not they are seeking housing.
How to apply
One short form covers all of it — three pages, and most families only need Sections A–D and the signature page. Download the application, fill it in, and email the completed copy — with copies of your supporting documents — to board@heartsandpawsfoundation.org. You can also post it to us. We reply within five business days, we will help you fill it in if you’d like, and we accept applications in your preferred language. There is no fee to apply.
Directors, officers, and contributors of the Foundation, and their family members, are not eligible for program benefits, as federal tax law requires. The program does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship or immigration status, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, age, medical condition, disability, veteran status, or source of income.
