SANDY FEET INITIATIVE

Description

Sandy Feet Initiative was founded in 2017 to support the needs of the siblings of children with special needs, disabilities and chronic illness. Founder and executive director, Mo Langley, discovered that these children were severely underserved and have their own "needs." These children have an important role in their family, they support their parents and their sibling, usually putting their needs second. They will also be the last surviving caregivers for their siblings, as parents and other support providers pass on. The enormous amount of responsibility facing these youngsters never ends and creates fear, pressure and anxiety on top of already existing societal pressure. Our program aims to create a community of support and care for these heroes, through teaching coping and communication skills as well as giving them the gift of the ocean through water games, boogie boarding and surf lessons.
In the last five years, we have reached well over 300 siblings, ages 7 through 35, through our beach programs as well as our volunteer programs. We promote from within, meaning we use our older siblings to facilitate our programs, creating a very successful and sustainable community.