About Us
Adventures in Caring supports the heart and soul during illness. People who are facing a serious illness or injury are also facing their mortality – so they need more than medical care. They need to experience compassion. The sick and injured have been forcefully reminded that life is short and health is precious. Their world has often been turned upside down. Hopes and dreams have been damaged or lost. Such a traumatic event in life is “an opportunity dressed in rags”. In this dark place we need a soul friend. We need to know that someone cares.
Based in Santa Barbara, Calif., the adventure began on Valentine’s Day 1984, when founding director Karen Fox stepped through the doors of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital dressed as Raggedy Ann to visit patients.
From Karen’s original spark of inspiration that recognized the deep-seated need of hospital patients for a good listener and a ray of hope at their bedside, Adventures in Caring has become an inspiration to millions.
In the past twenty-five years, more than one thousand Raggedy volunteers, specially trained in advanced listening skills, have made more than one million visits to lift the spirits of people who are seriously ill or injured.
Adventures in Caring also teaches compassion through its own educational series of DVD-based seminars, books, and on-site programs.
Because there is no pill for loneliness, Adventures in Caring serves all people, and all families, regardless of their illness or injury, age, gender, income, race, or religion.
As Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “The greatest pain on Earth is not the pain of hunger or poverty, but rather the pain of isolation, abandonment and feeling unloved.”
The solution is human contact with someone who cares and who listens.
