HR Pulse - Fall 2008 - (Page 18)

Sammy’s House Making a Difference in Austin By Anne Coulter A Different Vision Isabel Huerta is the executive director and founder of Sammy’s House. She and her husband were ﬁrst exposed to the world of special needs children when their son Samuel was born with multiple birth defects and Down Syndrome. At that time there was no organized child care in the Austin area for kids like Sammy, and the regular day care centers wouldn’t take him. The demands of caring for Sammy were overwhelming. Huerta lost her job, she had to cash in her retirement funds to cover the family’s expenses, and her family almost lost their house. After Sammy underwent open-heart surgery in 1999, he spent the next three months in the intensive care unit. Huerta’s family, which included two older children, always assumed that he would come home and invested a great deal of time and money to equip their house for the daily care he would need. Sammy died, never making it back home. Since her home was already set up for special needs children, Huerta decided to use it to provide day care for four other children. The word spread quickly and calls from desperate parents who had nowhere else to go kept rolling in. “The need was so apparent,” says Huerta. She and a small group of people formed a nonproﬁt organization so they could raise the money needed to serve more children. With $10,000 in initial contributions, Huerta opened Sammy’s House in 2001 and was soon caring for 12 children in a 1,200-square-foot facility. In January 2007, the center moved to a 12,000-square-foot building, allowing it to provide services for more families. The facility currently serves about 30 children and will expand to take care of 49 later this year. From the beginning, Huerta’s vision was to provide much more than simply appropriate care. She wanted to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and where challenged kids could still be kids. “One of the most painful things about having a special needs child is being ostracized. When you come in the door here, everybody belongs,” says Huerta. She and the staff are dedicated to making sure children at Sammy’s House learn the value of acceptance, compassion, and the art of caring for one another. 18 HR Pulse Fall 2008 A ttendees at the 2008 ASHHRA annual conference will have the opportunity to give back to the Austin community by contributing directly to Sammy’s House, a small nonprofit organization with a mission of providing appropriate day care services for young children who are medically fragile and/or developmentally delayed. “One of the ASHHRA guiding values is passion,” explains Irma Pye, conference Host Committee Chair and SRVP/CHRO of Valley Baptist Health System in Harlingen, Texas. “We strive to model passionate dedication to our profession, our organizations, and our communities. The annual conference outreach program reﬂects that value by touching the lives of those in the host community. As soon as we visited the facility, we knew Sammy’s House would be our beneﬁciary organization this year.”

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Fall 2008

HR Pulse - Fall 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director’s Letter President’s Message HR Leader Profile: Irma Pye Sammy’s House: Making a Difference in Austin Working Mother Magazine’s 100 Best Companies Increasing CEO Engagement Pastoral Care Retaining Scarce, Critical Talent The Engagement Dilemma Diversity Considerations…More than AAP & EEO Quashing the Workplace Bullying Bug How to Become a Strong Human Resources Partner Citizen Lobbyists Descend Upon Capitol Hill Conference Highlights Schedule at a Glance Sponsors Exhibitors Advertisers’ Index

HR Pulse - Fall 2008

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