Our Story
The Parc Foundation is a non-profit foundation organized for charitable, educational, scientific and religious purposes for the benefit of children with mental health issues. It was created in 2017 to help families afford the proper treatment and support in raising young boys and girls who have been diagnosed with mental health issues. Particularly, kids living with ADHD, ODD and Bi-Polar disorders.
Our founder created the foundation to help kids because of his own family’s battle with mental health issues. His grandmother was committed for most of her adult life for mental health issues. Her husband could not properly care for his daughter and son (our founder’s father) so they were sent to an orphanage for many years. This experience by his father undoubtedly influenced his behavior and the upbringing of his own children.
The experiences of our founder’s childhood with mental illness became more haunting when in his late teens his 26-year-old brother committed suicide. The brother’s battle with depression was never fully or properly diagnosed. But for our founder, seeing his brother’s body dragged in a body bag is something he will never forget.
Life seemed to balance during the college years when he traveled to the wonderful state of Florida on a sports scholarship. He enjoyed college life and the freedom away from home. He likely enjoyed it too much. However, by the 2nd year he settled down and made Dean’s List regularly. After graduation, he worked in sales and management positions up North before coming back to Florida to start a new venture. Unfortunately, his partner of 4 years committed suicide and our founder was forced to dissolve the business.
By his mid-30’s, our founder’s new career flourished and he decided it was time to get married and start a family. He and his wife adopted a beautiful baby a number of years later and all seemed well.
His challenges with mental illness seemed buried in his subconscious until the birth of another family member who was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD by the time he was 8 years old. Their family was not equipped to parent properly and they were unaware of what ADHD and ODD were and how to treat someone who actually had these mental health challenges. Many of their family and friends didn’t think hyper behavior or defiant actions were anything different than normal child behavior. Initially, it caused many hardships emotionally and financially but eventually, proper medications and support were found.
It is the Parc Foundation’s goal to provide early financial intervention and assistance for the parents of these special needs kids and/or those organizations who seek to improve the quality of life for these kids. If you would like to apply for consideration, click here. If you wish to review our resource page for ideas for your family’s plight, click here.
Thank you and God Bless you and your family!