SAN ANTONIO – As summer vacation starts for families across San Antonio, Any Baby Can (ABC) of Southwest Texas hosted an open house to highlight the services it offers to families with special needs.
“People are very curious about how they can support our work, how they support our families and we really wanted to invite people in and give them an opportunity to get their hands dirty,” said CEO Jenny Hixon.
Hixon says that while some families might be familiar with a few of the services the nonprofit offers, a lot of work is done behind the scenes, including case management and home visits. Everything they do at the nonprofit is free of charge.
“Because we do a lot of that work in people’s homes, or we do it out with the families in private, we don’t really get a chance to kind of show folks what that work looks like,” she said.
“We just really want people to feel connected to the work. All of our work is made possible by the community. We only exist because of community donations and because of the support we receive."
In addition to services that include case management, therapy, home visits and autism counseling, ABC also offers bereavement services.
“We did contact them, and basically, that’s all it was, just a phone call. They were able to take care of the rest," said Rockell and Ramod Holley.
Two years ago, the Holleys lost their son and were in disarray. They contacted ABC and were able to receive help with funeral arrangements, free grief counseling, and found a community of people who had gone through the same unthinkable tragedy.
"So when you have somebody you can relate to about that, you know, you feel kind of relief, you know what I mean? And then the community is just awesome," Ramod said.
The Holleys believe that having a nonprofit like ABC offer year-round assistance to families is a great thing for San Antonio. CEO Jenny Hixon says working with other nonprofits around town and coming together to offer resources can make a big difference in people’s lives.
“It really is a big stress relief if you’re like, ‘Oh, my child just had a meltdown at HEB’ and you can call someone who’s not gonna judge you but who’s like, ‘Man, I’ve been there too,” the Holley’s said.