Families for HoPE, Inc.

Sharing the HoPE in HoloProsEncephaly

HPE Parents' Handbook
Families for HoPE, Inc. has some exciting news to share!

The Carter Centers recently received funding to write and distribute an “HPE Parents’ Handbook”.  Families for HoPE is pleased to collaborate with them on this special project that we hope will give knowledge and encouragement to families affected by HPE.


The HPE Parent’s Handbook will be available to families affected by HPE, their physicians, therapists and teachers. It will also be provided to family resource libraries at hospitals, clinics, and schools. It is our hope that this handbook will be maintained in a 3-ring binder so that it can be easily updated as new research or information becomes available.

The HPE Parent’s Handbook will be a joint effort between Families for HoPE and the Carter Centers. There will be a basic breakdown into two parts: a clinical perspective and a personal perspective.

The medical staff at the Carter Centers will be responsible for writing the clinical and medical material in the handbook, and Families for HoPE will review the content to be sure it is easy to understand and not overly complex from a parents’ perspective.

Families for HoPE and YOU--the parents of children with HPE--will be responsible for writing stories about your experiences with your child and family, as well as suggestions and advice from parents about coping, hope, loss, acceptance and more. We also would like to include photos of our kids and their families.

To help accomplish this major project, we need your help!

Over the course of the next several weeks, we will ask 1-2 questions per week to seek your thoughts, experiences, “words of wisdom,” etc. on a variety of topics.   These questions will be available to answer in several ways:  e-mail to families in the Families for HoPE database; posts to the various Yahoo groups for HPE and HPE loss; and a dedicated page on the Families for HoPE website.

We hope you all choose to participate and to help other families who have similar concerns and experiences to your own.
Any answers to questions, comments, or correspondence regarding this project can be sent to Handbook@FamiliesforHoPE.org.

Due to HIPPA and privacy concerns, everyone who submits a photo or writes information for the handbook will be asked to sign necessary release forms in order to be recognized in the handbook. If you would prefer to remain anonymous or use a name other than your own, please contact us and we will work with you on that.

Families for HoPE is very excited to be working with the Carter Centers on this valuable endeavor, and hope all of our families will participate and make it a success! Look for the questions weekly and please answer as many as are pertinent to you and your family. Due to limited space not every answer will be printed, but we will try to get a range of opinions on all the topics chosen.

Thank you in advance for your participation from the Families for HoPE board members!


Leslie Harley, Heather Stauft, Roxanne Steele, Shira Arnold and Amy Colletti