For Referral Agencies

Welcome to Hopecam.

Hopecam receives the majority of our referrals from social workers, child life specialists, doctors, nurses, clinics, hospitals and homebound specialists. We rely on your help to get the word out to parents and patients about Hopecam and what it can do for them. We have formed partnerships with many hospitals and outpatient clinics in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland, and they will refer patients to Hopecam on a consistent basis. Below, you’ll find more information about who qualifies for Hopecam and how our program works. You will also find a list of Frequently Asked Questions for Referral Agents.

Who Qualifies

To qualify for Hopecam, a child must be:

A high school senior or younger.
Projected to be homebound for a significant period of time (usually 6 months or more).
Diagnosed with a life-threatening condition or critical illness.

Submitting a Referral

To begin, a parent or a child’s social worker, guidance counselor or child life specialist, will need to fill out a referral form. You can find a link here to submit an electronic form or email program@hopecam.org for a hardcopy to fax in.

Once your referral from has been received, we will contact the child’s family within one week. If they are not contacted after a week, please email program@hopecam.org or call 703 620 2555 x101.

For most referral agencies, their job ends after they refer the patient to Hopecam. Some referral agents will play a role in helping to establish an internet connection and get equipment, depending on the child’s situation.

To understand how Hopecam works and what happens after the referral process, keep reading.

Initial Contact

We will contact the child’s family to talk about the Hopecam program and set the child up with the right equipment and technology.

We provide the laptop and webcam at no cost to the family or school.

We will ship or deliver the equipment to the family at the home or hospital.

On their new laptop, they will have to create a Skype account (which requires an email address) or a similar video conferring program so they can connect to their classroom.

Connecting With School

Once the child is all set with their equipment, we work with the school to introduce them to Hopecam and get them on board. We work with administrators, teachers, guidance counselors and tech staff to set up Hopecam in the child’s classroom. This process takes anywhere from one week to two months, depending on circumstances.

We let the family and the teacher agree on a schedule and type of connection.

We always recommend a test call is done first between the teacher and the child before inviting the rest of the class in on the call.

Keep Us Posted

We love to get pictures of our Hopecam kids! Share your stories with us for our newsletters, online articles and other media outlets.

After Homebound

Once the child returns to school full-time, we ask that they return the equipment to Hopecam, so that other homebound children can use it. This keeps our costs low and increases the number of kids we can help. In special circumstances, we’ll gift the equipment to the child. We always ask the referral agent for their advice first.

Help us spread the word! Share your story with media, Facebook, our newsletter and blogs to help us get the word out about Hopecam. Tell your other patients and coworkers about the impact Hopecam had on the child.