PICKLES LEARN

FAMILY RESOURCE LIBRARY

Pickles Support Kits

Pickles Support Kits help parents and caregivers have honest, age-appropriate conversations with their kids and teens about cancer, and help reinforce Pickles learning, coping, and connections at home. Pickles Support Kits include a how-to guide and age-appropriate terms for diagnosed parents to help talk about cancer with their kids; a family resource library; and an interactive family Pickles activity. Support Kits are available to families and community partners across the U.S.

Families, friends, and others can request a virtual or hard copy support kit below.

REQUEST A SUPPORT KIT

Sharable, Printable Pickles Group Information

Looking for information you can print or share about Pickles Group? Download and share:

2023 Pickles Group Youth Program Flyer

National Cancer Support Organizations

Below is a list of national cancer support organizations that provide a variety of services including education, support, research, and guidance.

Illinois Cancer Support Organizations

Cancer Wellness Center: Cancer Wellness Center, located in Northbrook, IL, provides a range of free cancer-based programs and services including counseling, wellness, and education.
Wellness House: Wellness House, located in Hinsdale, IL, provides a range of free cancer-based programs and services including counseling, wellness, and education.
Gilda’s Club Chicago: Gilda’s Club Chicago provides a range of free cancer-based programs and services including groups, education, and social events.
Cancer Support Center: The Cancer Support Center provides free support services to any person impacted by cancer. Their evidence-based programs and services are created and delivered personally, virtually and in ideal settings by professional therapists, counselors, nutritionists, and healthcare experts and our resources are available and accessible to all through many communities, channels, and tools.

Resources for Children Impacted by Parental Cancer

Kesem: Kesem offers a broad range of free programs and services to support children affected by a parent’s cancer. Their flagship program, Camp Kesem, is a free week-long, sleep-away summer camp with chapters throughout the United States.
Wonders & Worries: Wonders & Worries is a Texas-based organization that provides free, professional support for children and teenagers through a parent’s serious illness or injury, so that they can reach their full potential. Their national services include a Teen App and a Helpline for parents.
Bright Spot Network: Bright Spot Network provides young cancer survivors who are parents of small children with a safe space for individual and familial healing, recovery, and reconnection. Programming is geared toward families with children under 6 years of age.

Adult Cancer Support Resources

Jasper Health: Jasper Health is a digital app for your cancer care. Organize your schedule, track your medications and symptoms, and access cancer care coaching support—all in one place. Jasper is available both via web and mobile app.
Imerman Angels: Imerman Angels carefully matches and individually pairs a person touched by cancer (a cancer fighter or survivor) with someone who has fought and survived the same type of cancer (a Mentor Angel).
Epic Experience: Through its week-long adventure camps, regional meetups, and education programming, Epic Experience empowers adult cancer survivors, thrivers, and caregivers to live beyond cancer.
First Descents: First Descents offers young adult cancer fighters and survivors, ages 18-39, a free outdoor adventure experience.
Stupid Cancer: Stupid Cancer provides educational and supportive resources to those impacted by adolescent and young adult cancer.
Twist Out Cancer: Twist Out Cancer provides psychosocial support to previvors, survivors, and caregivers through creative arts programming which serves as a mechanism for healing.
Luminaries: Luminaries delivers step-by-step toolkits to help cancer Survivors respond to challenges and thrive.
Triage Cancer: Triage Cancer is a national, nonprofit organization that provides free education on the legal and practical issues that may impact individuals diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers, through events, materials, and resources.
Sharsheret: Sharsheret is a national nonprofit dedicated to providing cancer-related emotional support, genetic counseling, and life-saving education to women, men, and families of all backgrounds facing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Sharsheret social workers send free, tailored care packages including toys and resources for children/parenting, survivorship kits, cosmetics kits, caregiver kits, and more.

LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Family Resources

The African American Breast Cancer Alliance (AABCA): African American Breast Cancer Alliance, Inc. builds awareness, networking, resources, and support for Black women and men impacted by breast cancer.
The CancerLifeline: CancerLifeline A support group for people who identity as members of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) and are living with a cancer diagnosis or have a loved one living with a cancer diagnosis.
Amplifying Black Voices Across Cancer: Amplifying Black Voices Across Cancer aims to amplify and share Black voices, stories, and experiences in order to shed light on disparities and lived experiences of what it means to be Black with cancer and to move forward together towards true equity within cancer research and beyond.
National LGBT Cancer Network: The National LGBT Cancer Network works to improve the lives of LGBT cancer survivors and those at risk through education, training, and advocacy.
The National LGBT Cancer Project: The National LGBT Cancer Project has an online support group community, Out with Cancer, that is committed to improving the health of LGBT cancer survivors with peer to peer support, patient navigation, education, and advocacy.
TOUCH: The Black Breast Cancer Alliance: Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance drives the collaborative efforts towards the common goal of eradicating Black Breast Cancer.
The Chrysalis Initiative: The Chrysalis Initiative exists to disrupt outcome disparities within breast cancer, so every patient receives the care they deserve.
Nueva Vida: Our mission is to inform, support, and empower Latinas whose lives are affected by cancer, and to advocate for and facilitate the timely access to state of the art cancer care.
Latina Contra Cancer: Latinas Contra Cancer aims to create an inclusive health care system that provides services to the underserved Latino population around issues of cancer.
Latino Cancer Institute: Latino Cancer Institute provides public education, community resources, and access to care that helps improve cancer survival rates for the Latinx population in the United States.
American Indian Cancer Foundation: At the American Indian Cancer Foundation (AICAF), we imagine a world where cancer is no longer the leading cause of death for Native people.
ALAS Support Group: ALAS Support Group promotes the quality of life for the Latinx community by providing breast health awareness, education, and emotional support programs for Hispanic/Latina women and their families throughout the Chicagoland area.

Books About Parent and Caregiver Cancer and Illness

What Do I Tell the Kids is a free PDF from Cancer Support Community with guidance on how to talk to children about cancer at different ages.
What I Wish You Knew CONVERSATIONS is a book and resource that offers deceptively simple conversation starters that will initiate dialogue in families. Developing the habit of "just talking" together regularly makes it easier to support one another during challenging times.
How to Help Children Through a Parent’s Serious Illness by Kathleen McCue is a book by a Child Life Specialist that provides suggestions and guidance to caregivers on parenting from diagnosis through treatment and beyond.
A Tiny Boat at Sea by Izetta Smith is a book that teaches adults how to help children who have had a parent or family member who has been diagnosed with cancer.
What Happens When Someone I Love Has Cancer? By Sara Olsher is a children’s book (~4-10 years) that explains the science of cancer and how a loved one’s diagnosis and treatment affects a kid’s day-to-day life. (Also available in Spanish)
The Dot Method by Kelsey Mora is an interactive workbook (~4-12 years) to teach kids about cancer.
Butterfly Kisses and Wishes on Wings by Ellen McVicker is a children’s book (~ages 5-8 years) that addresses a parent’s cancer diagnosis and associated feelings. (Also available in Spanish)
Life Isn’t Always a Day at the Beach: A Book for All Children Whose Lives are Affected by Cancer by Pam Ganz is a children’s book designed for children dealing with the cancer diagnosis of a sibling, parent or grandparent, relative, friend, or themselves.
Life Isn’t Always a Breeze: A Supportive Journal for All Teens Coping with Cancer by Pam Ganz is a book designed for teens dealing with the cancer diagnosis of a sibling, parent or grandparent, relative, friend, or themselves.
A Kids Book About Cancer by Dr. Kelsie Storm and Sarah Porter (~5-9 years) a book that aims to give a basic understanding of cancer to grownups and kids who may have someone in their life who has it.
When Someone Has a Very Serious Illness by Marge Heegaard is an interactive workbook (~ages 8-12 years) for children to learn, express, and process illness.
My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks by Marc Silver is a book that provides real-life advice from real-life teens designed to help teens (~12-17 years) who have a parent with cancer.

National Grief Organizations

Dougy Center: The Dougy Center, based in Portland, provides access to grief support and resources.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief raises awareness about the needs of grieving children and teens and provides education and resources for anyone who supports them.
Eluna Network: Eluna Network provides supportive services for children impacted by grief or addiction. Two applicable programs include Camp Erin which is a weekend camp program for children and teens grieving the death of a significant person in their lives and The Eluna Resource Center which offers personalized support in Spanish & English via phone and email with a turnaround time of 24 hours.
Widowed Parent: Widowed Parent is a program based in North Carolina whose website offers guidance, resources, and a series of short videos about the unique challenges of being an "only" parent.
Inheritance of Hope: Inheritance of Hope offers virtual and in-person groups and retreats for young families facing the loss of a parent due to terminal illness.
Experience Camps: Experience Camps is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. While not cancer specific, they have extensive grief resources online and also host free camps for kids.

Illinois Grief Organizations

Willow House: Willow House, based in Illinois, provides support to children, families, schools, and communities who are coping with grief and the death of a loved one.
The Good Mourning Program: The Good Mourning Program provides bereavement support for children and their families in the Chicagoland area.

Rainbows for All Children: Rainbow for All Children provides support groups across the country for helping children struggling with loss.

Auditorium Theatre - Arts to Heart: This unique performing arts camp brings together young people between the ages of 7 and 14 who have experienced the death of a parent to encourage the healing power of creative play.

Books About End of Life and Death

Ida Always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso is children’s book (~3-7 years) about two best bear friends and their experience with one becoming very sick and not getting better.
Invisible String by Patrice Karst is a children’s book (~4-8 years) that teaches the invisible bond of love that extends all the way to heaven.
One Wave at a Time by Holly Thompson (~5-8 years) is a children’s book about a young boy who loses his father and how he experiences all kinds of emotions: sadness, anger, fear, guilt. As the boy and his family adjust to life without their Dad, the waves still roll in. But with the help of friends and one another, they learn to cope - and eventually, heal.
Everywhere, Still by M.H. Clark (~4-11 years) is a children’s book about loss, grief, and the way love continues.
Grief Talk Guides are a series of free PDFs from National Alliance for Children’s Grief with guidance on how to have conversations with children and teens about death, dying, and grief.
Something Very Sad Happened by Bonnie Zucker is a children’s book (~2-4 years) that helps explain death and dying to a young child.
Goodbye: A First Conversation About Grief by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli is a children’s book (~2-5 years) that aims to normalize the topic of death by discussing what it means and how it feels to experience loss.
I Miss You by Pat Thomas is a children’s book (~4-7 years) that helps explore the difficult issue of death for children and helps them to understand the loss and associated feelings.
What Happens When Someone I Love Can’t Get Better: A Book to Prepare and Cope with End of Life By Sara Olsher and Jenni Rogers is a children’s book (~4-10 years) that explains the process of dying including themes of hospice care, legacy building, memory making, and coping strategies.
What on Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? By Trevor Romain is a children’s book (~5-10 years) that addresses what death means and how to cope.
When Someone Very Special Dies by Marge Heegaard is an interactive workbook (~ages 8-12 years) for children to learn, express, and process death.
Healing Your Grieving Heart for Teens: 100 Practical Ideas by Alan Wolfelt is a book of activities and suggestions to help teens (~12-17 years) express their grief.
The Healing Your Grieving Heart Journal for Teens by Alan Wolfelt is an interactive journal (~12-17 years) for teens to explore simple, open-ended questions that help sort out their thoughts and feelings.
Moving in Forever by Rebecca Wu is a true children’s story (~6-12 years) that follows two nephews who take care of their terminally-ill aunt after she moves in with them. The book addresses love, grief, and remembering those who die.

If you would like us to consider adding a resource to our list or have identified or used a cancer resource that supports your family’s faith, race, ethnicity, and identity, please let us know!