While the hospital and medical staff focus on treatment, ASK works to provide the quality of life support needed to make life with cancer less traumatic from diagnosis through treatment and beyond. ASK supports the ASK Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University. We fund a child psychologist, chaplain, and child life therapist who work at the clinic and provide immediate services to children and their families during cancer treatment. Educational challenges often affect children who miss school due to their cancer diagnosis and treatment. We contract with an educational consultant to provide tutoring, neurological psychological testing and evaluation, college and vocational advice, and after-school and summer enrichment to children currently in and recently past treatment to combat those problems. Young children's preschool or kindergarten experiences are sometimes postponed or interrupted during cancer treatment. ASK partners with First Baptist Weekday School to offer First STEP preschool to meet the unique educational, social, and emotional needs of young children with chronic illness as they go through the process of healing. ASK offers social support to families by sponsoring monthly family discussion groups for both oncology and sickle cell patients at our offsite office and meeting space. Educational workshops specifically designed for teens, long-term survivors, siblings, families of newly diagnosed children as well as bereaved families are planned throughout the year. A cancer diagnosis can create a heavy financial toll on a family, so ASK offers assistance to families in crisis. We have helped families pay for housing, utility bills, overnight hotel stays, parking and meal tickets at the hospital, groceries, and funeral expenses. ASK partners with the YMCA to offer Moving Forward, a fun and dynamic physical fitness program designed to help survivors improve strength, mobility, coordination, endurance, balance, and self-esteem. Each participant receives personal training and a family membership for one year. Throughout the year ASK sponsors fun social events for the children and their families, including birthday parties, high school graduation, a springtime gathering at the zoo, laser tag, spa day, a party at the Children's Museum of Richmond, and a holiday party. All of these services are provided free of charge to the children and their families who are being treated at the ASK Pediatric Oncology Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University.
