Night Lights was started March 4, 2011 in Littleton, Colorado to provide respite care to families of children with special needs ages 4 weeks to 12 years old and their siblings in that same age group.
One Friday night a month, each child is paired with a trained, background-checked volunteer who is their buddy for the evening. They watch movies, play games, dance, skip, jump, craft, have a sensory room, and other engaging activities that vary month-to-month. In the warmer weather months, the children go outside for other activities.
Sometimes, we even have special guests who come to provide entertainment including the fire department, police officers, therapy pets, dancers, and magicians. There is a nurse on-site at each location to provide skilled nursing care. Our sites are staffed and run by volunteers.
Night Lights expanded in the summer of 2021, adding a site in Broomfield, CO. Currently, Night Lights has three locations in the Denver metro area including Arvada, Broomfield, and Littleton. Details on location and event times HERE.
Night Lights is currently looking for volunteers for each of our locations and we are accepting applications for families who need respite care services to help us continue providing these services.
Thanks to volunteers and donors, Night Lights has provided over 67,000 hours of free respite care to families of children with special needs and their neuro-typical siblings over the last ten years. This level of respite care would cost the state just over $1.2 million if all the Night Lights families were able to access this service.
While the children are considered to have special needs, we also understand that they are still talented and capable. They simply have additional needs beyond a neurotypical child. There are four major types of special needs children that we frequently see at Night Lights including those with physical needs such as muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, chronic asthma, epilepsy, those with developmental needs including but not limited to down syndrome, autism, dyslexia, processing disorders, children with behavioral/emotional needs such as ADD and ADHD, as well as children with sensory impairments including blindness, visually impairment, deafness, and limited hearing.
Not only does Night Lights provide respite care for the children with special needs, but their siblings as well.
Night Lights was founded by Kristin Steadman and based on her own experiences as a parent of a child with special needs. Navigating waivers to attain special treatments for her son as well as the costs associated with his needs inspired her to create a nonprofit organization that provides a much-needed break to parents at no cost so they can have time to themselves. Caring for oneself enables a parent to provide better care to the children who depend on them.
Night Lights provides valuable time away so that parents can refuel and nurture an overall sense of wellbeing. With approximately 13.5 million children in the United States (under 18 years old) with diagnosed special health care needs (National Survey of Children’s Health (2020), respite care is in high demand.
You can learn more about Night Lights at https://nightlightskids.org or by emailing info@nightlightskids.org.
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