501c(3) Status Currently Pending
BECAUSE NO FAMILY SHOULD HAVE TO FACE CHILDHOOD ILLNESS AND HOMELESSNESS
Help us provide stability, support, and shelter for medically fragile children and their families.
Our Story
From our founder, Nicole Evans:
This nonprofit was born from both heartbreak and hope.
In 2015, I held my son Callan in my arms as he took his last breath. He was seventeen months old - a brave, bright, beautiful little boy with a warrior’s heart. Callan was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a rare and severe congenital heart defect. From the moment we received his diagnosis at 20 weeks in utero, life as I knew it changed.
Callan underwent his first open-heart surgery (The Norwood) at just four days old. His second surgery came at just four months. The doctors weren’t sure whether he needed The Glenn procedure (second open-heart surgery in a series of three) or a full heart transplant. Eventually, after determining he was not a candidate for heart transplant and The Glenn had not kept heart failure at bay, they sent us home on hospice believing he wouldn’t make it to his first birthday.
But, Callan defied the odds. The last month of his life he was doing well, until he wasn’t. Callan took a sudden turn, and on February 11, 2015 at 7:48 P.M. My world shattered as he took his last breath in my arms. We buried him on Valentine’s Day that year.
There is no loss deeper than losing my child. My purpose, my identity, my world shattered. Yet, in this pain, a legacy was born. Callan’s Legacy.
This nonprofit exists because no family should have to choose between a place to live and caring for their medically fragile child. I know firsthand how terrifying and isolating it can be because not only was I a full-time caregiver living at hospitals with my medically fragile son, I also battled homelessness couch surfing from family to his home health nurse’s home for over two months.
Through rental and mortgage assistance, and eventually transitional housing, we are here to lighten that burden- for parents just trying to survive and children fighting for their lives.
Callan may be gone from my arms, but his heartbeat echoes in the mission of this organization. In his name, we fight for families still in the storm. In his memory, we build something stronger- together.
With love and purpose,
Nancy “Nicole” Evans
Founder of Callan’s Legacy House and Callan’s mommy
When you support Callan’s Legacy House,
You support keeping families housed during the hardest fight of their lives. No parent should lose their home while caring for a sick child. Your help makes stability possible. Healing starts with stable housing.
What Callan’s Legacy House Offers
ONE-TIME ASSISTANCE
Rental or Mortgage assistance:
One time grant per family on an annual basis during crisis to help prevent eviction.
Short-Term Assistance
Rental or Mortgage assistance:
Up to two months of rental or mortgage assistance for families in crisis based on available funding and scholarships.
Transitional Housing
Emergency housing:
Emergency housing placement for families of medically fragile children that will provide psychosocial support until longer term housing is available.
Testimonial: Jae Stone Witcher, Mother of Ava and Layla
“My twin daughters, Ava and Layla, were both diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at just one month old. We managed their care at home until Layla caught a respiratory virus at four months old. That virus led to cardiac arrest, two life flights, ECMO, and -after a long and painful flight-our sweet Layla passed away at six months.
The hospital was nearly three hours from our home. After Layla passed, we barely had time to grieve before Ava became critically ill. She was life-flighted to another hospital over two hours away and placed on a Berlin heart pump while we waited three long months for a transplant.
During all of this, I faced the terrifying possibility of losing our home. With my husband being a disabled veteran and me unable to work full-time, we relied entirely on his VA income. There were moments we didn’t know if we’d have gas to get to the hospital, or how we’d cover our bills. The stress was unbearable-not only grieving one child, but fearing the loss of another, all while trying to care for our two children at home.
The Rondald McDonald House gave us a place to sleep and meals to eat when we were at the hospital. Our kid's’ school raised money for gas. Friends donated what they could. A grant helped cover a month of bills. A nonprofit sent a care package and gift card, and a local funeral home covered most of Layla’s cremation and service at no cost.
We would not have made it through without the kindness and support of others. No family should have to choose between being by their child’s side and keeping a roof over their head. Support matters-it saves families, not just children.”
-Jae Stone Witcher, mother of Ava and Layla