Three Join Children's Charity Friends of Karen - Additions Strengthen Services Delivery to Children with a Life-Threatening Illness

North Salem, NY, May 02, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Friends of Karen, a charity that provides vital, practical and comprehensive services to families caring for a child with a life-threatening illness, announced the addition of three staff members to its Family Support Services team. The additions come at a time when the demand for Friends of Karen’s services has never been greater, and enable the charity to reach more families. Friends of Karen served 554 families last year – the most ever.

Sarah M. Coakley, LMSW, has worked with children and their families throughout her career. Most recently, she was a Social Worker at The Hallen School (New Rochelle, NY), a private school for students K-12 with special needs, working closely with families to help them navigate the special needs world. She was also a program manager for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and has worked with elementary and middle school students in the Bronx and elsewhere. Ms. Coakley is working with Friends of Karen families in Brooklyn and the Bronx, an area where nearly 30% of Friends of Karen families live.

Natalia Echeverri, MSW, has experience in curriculum development, play therapy and crisis intervention, among other skills. She has worked with children and their families in a variety of settings, most recently at Premier Health Care and Project Grow/Project Grown Up, providing clinical services as well as ensuring regulatory compliance and performing quality assurance reviews. Ms. Echeverri, a native of Colombia, is responsible for many of the Friends of Karen families whose primary language is Spanish.

Randi Glassman joins as a Family Support Case Manager, managing the intake of families. Before joining Friends of Karen, Ms. Glassman was the Family Liaison for Embrace Kids Foundation, affiliated with The Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick, NJ) and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, where she worked closely with social workers, counselors and Child Life Specialists, and was the liaison between patients’ families and hospital staff. Ms. Glassman graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Rutgers University.

“We get about 25 calls every month from families needing our help,” says Rhonda Ryan, director of Friends of Karen’s Family Support Services. “I welcome Sarah, Natalia and Randi, I know they’ll help us deliver our services to even more families.”

Friends of Karen is a registered 501(c)(3) charity and the only organization in the New York tri-state area that provides a comprehensive range of services and programs to help free families caring for a child with a life-threatening illness of everyday concerns, so they have more time to love. Founded in 1978 after helping one child, Karen, and her family, and headquartered in North Salem, NY with other offices on Long Island and in Manhattan, Friends of Karen has touched the lives of 12,400 children. Charity Navigator, an independent organization that evaluates the financial responsibility and effectiveness of thousands of U.S. charities, gives Friends of Karen a 4-star rating, its highest award. For more information, visit www.FriendsOfKaren.org or call 914-617-4040.