Our impact

Five Years of Growing Together

In October 2021, Pickles Group was founded with a simple belief: no kid should have to navigate a parent’s cancer alone. Since then, we’ve grown from a small community with a big vision into a national organization supporting kids and teens across the full arc of a family’s cancer experience, from a parent’s initial diagnosis through treatment and survivorship, anticipatory grief, and loss.

Our programs have expanded in both reach and depth, connecting more kids and teens with the peer support, community, and resources they need at every stage as they navigate their parent’s cancer.

As we celebrate five years of Pickles, we’re looking back at the milestones, people, and moments that have shaped where we are today, and we’re excited to start the next five years ready to meet kids where they are with expert-designed, kid-informed programs made just for them.

From one program to a continuum of support for kids facing a parent’s cancer.

96,789

Family Cancer Support Kits distributed

2,345

Youth program enrollments since 2021

6,935

Kids supported since 2022

50 states

+16 countries
Where families and providers have received support

177

Volunteers who have facilitated a Pickles program with kids

6,295

Oncology care providers reached

From Diagnosis to survivorship or Loss: Building an Arc of Support

Over the past five years, we’ve built an arc of support designed to meet kids and families wherever they are and to make sure they have somewhere to turn as their needs change.

Whenever a family needs us
Support that’s available without enrolling in a program.

  • Family Cancer Support Kit, a booklet that helps parents and caregivers talk openly with their kids about cancer. Free and available in English and Spanish

  • “How to Talk to Kids About Cancer” webinars, available to watch anytime

  • Resource navigation and support through our family call center

At diagnosis and through active treatment
When families are finding their footing and figuring out what to say, what to share, and how to help their kids.

  • Connect Over Cancer, a five-week virtual program for kids ages 6–18

  • In-person programming in Chicago North, with four events each year

When cancer continues or becomes more complex
When treatment stretches on, circumstances change, or kids want a community that can be there long-term.

  • Pickles Jars, year-round monthly groups where kids can build lasting connections with peers

  • “How to Talk to Kids About Advanced Cancer” kit and webinar

Through survivorship
When treatment ends, but the experience doesn’t simply disappear.

  • Connect Over Cancer, including kids whose parent has completed treatment

  • Pickles Jars, for kids whose parent has complex or advanced-stage cancer, who want to continue building connection and community

  • Peer Leaders program, giving teens ages 13–20 an opportunity to use their experience to support others

After the loss of a parent
Because support shouldn’t end after the loss of a parent.

  • Pickles Jars bereavement groups, offering year-round connection with peers who understand

  • Peer Leaders program, giving teens the opportunity to turn their experience into support for other kids and develop leadership skills

5 Years of pickles Milestones

2021

In September, Chief Clinical Officer Kelsey Mora was hired to help bring a support group she’d been facilitating for our three Founding Families through her private practice to more kids. Working alongside founding Executive Director Cassy Horton, she began transforming that early curriculum into a free program that could reach families nationwide.

Our first pilot program came to life. Just one month later, on October 20, 2021, 6 local volunteers facilitated support for 11 kids facing their parent’s cancer at Crow Island School in Winnetka, IL. There was no support kit yet, just an idea, a community willing to try it, and feedback that would shape everything that followed.

2022

Pickles launched its Chicago North Shore program, along with a hybrid virtual option so families could participate even when in-person connection wasn’t possible. The virtual program was a critical component in a world where kids still weren’t allowed in hospitals with their parents, and immunocompromised parents were taking extra care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also launched our first How to Talk to Kids About Cancer webinar and the Family Cancer Support Kit, based on direct feedback from the first families we served and nurses and social workers we met with, giving families support they could access beyond our programs, and answering the key question that kept coming up: “how do I talk to my kids about cancer?”

We enrolled 121 kids, reached 185 families, distributed 2,100 support kits, and connected with 57 oncology care providers.

2023

For the next two years, we piloted different delivery models, meeting frequencies, and explored the balance of virtual vs. in-person support to meet families needs. We landed on a flagship program that provided foundational support to the most families possible through Connect Over Cancer: a five-week virtual program connecting kids with peers who understand what they’re going through.

We also began training oncology care teams directly for the first time, to meet their demand for resources and support through our What About the Kids trainings for nurses, social workers, and clinical staff.

We enrolled 217 kids, reached 758 families, distributed 7,081 support kits, and connected with 601 oncology care providers.

2024

Kids who completed Connect Over Cancer asked us for more. In 2024, we listened by piloting three new ways to support kids and teens as their parent’s cancer journey evolved, and their needs changed: Pickles Jars, bereavement support, and the Peer Leaders Program.

Together, they expanded our vision of what it means to be there for kids throughout a family’s cancer experience, and allowed us to build resources informed directly by our existing kids.

We enrolled 408 kids, reached 1,218 families, distributed 19,277 support kits, and connected with 1,388 oncology care providers

2025

We formalized year-round Pickles Jars and bereavement support and began offering them to new families, and grew our Peer Leaders program beyond the initial pilots, moving us close to offering a full arc of services for kids and teens. We enrolled 817 kids, reached 2,475 families, distributed 35,771 support kits, and connected with 2,075 oncology care providers.

2026

Bereaved kids and parents asked us for more. In the Spring of 2026, the Pickles Community helped to fund our first-ever “How to Talk to Kids About Advanced Cancer” kit and webinar, launching in November 2026, and completing our full arc of services. The kit was designed in collaboration with our new Parenting Patient Champions Program, created to help hospitals and nonprofits nationwide better support kids when a parent has cancer.

Over the summer, Pickles Group completed a 3-year retrospective analysis of our flagship Connect Over Cancer program and completed implementation review of Connect Over Cancer with a University of Chicago researcher, Harold Pollack. Findings showed that our flagship program consistently provides high-quality support to kids as we’ve grown, and is ready to scale.

Five years in, kids now have access to a full arc of support, designed by experts and informed by them, no matter what they face through their parent’s cancer