Why Our Mission Matters

Hospital rooms, nursing homes, and hospice settings can feel lonely and overwhelming for children, adults, and seniors alike. Brighten A Heart™ partners with care teams to deliver comfort care totes filled with small, thoughtful items that help patients feel seen and supported. Every delivery is designed to be easy for staff to distribute, respectful of facility policies, and mindful of privacy.

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ᰔᩚ Our Mission

Our mission is built on a simple truth: kindness can ease loneliness and gently support healing.

At Brighten A Heart™, even the simplest gifts: a crocheted or knitted flower, a plush comfort item, a soft blanket, a handwritten message from the community, or original artwork on a 6 × 6 canvas: can soften fear, ease isolation, and bring warmth into a patient’s room during one of the hardest moments of their life.

We can’t change a diagnosis, but we can change the way a room feels for a little while.

An elderly man with a bandaged leg in a hospital bed, smiling and receiving a colorful handmade card from a woman standing beside him. The woman has short blond hair, is wearing a blue jacket, and is holding a walker nearby. There are blue butterfly decorations on the wall.

All comfort-care totes are distributed directly through healthcare facilities to respect patient privacy and follow HIPAA and facility policies. We never collect or share patient health information. Every item we provide is:

  • Healthcare friendly

  • Hypoallergenic and fragrance free, or very lightly scented using gentle, naturally derived ingredients whenever possible

  • Designed to support your team’s work: easy to store, easy to distribute, and low in waste

We honor both the dignity of patients and the dedication of caregivers.

A woman standing in a hospital hallway holding a pink box of flowers, wearing a 'Daniel' embroidered jacket, with a blue butterfly sticker on her nylon bag and a butterfly sticker on the wall.

Because we believe creative connection matters at every age, every Brighten A Heart™ comfort care tote includes a 6 × 6 hand drawn canvas created by someone in the community. It might be made by a child, a classroom, a family, or an individual who simply wanted to say: “You are seen, you are not alone.”

Our work is guided not only by compassion, but also by growing evidence that connection, kindness, creativity, and social support are important parts of health.

Six colorful, childlike animal illustrations on small canvases displayed on an easel, including a fish, unicorn, whale, hedgehog, cat, and a fish with spots for coloring, with painting supplies such as paints, brushes, and a palette on a table in the foreground.

ᰔᩚ Why It Works

Evidence Supporting Our Mission

Brighten A Heart™ is rooted in compassion and in growing evidence that kindness, connection, and creative support are part of good care. Research and medical institutions are increasingly recognizing that social isolation can harm health, and that supportive human connection can make a meaningful difference.

If you’re curious, you can explore a few credible sources below that help explain why connection and kindness matter in health care.

Medical professional smiling and talking with a woman in a healthcare setting.

  • A Mayo Clinic–led study, published in JACC: Advances, found that people who are more socially isolated show signs of being biologically older than their chronological age and face a higher risk of death, even after accounting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
    Artificial intelligence shows that social isolation impacts cardiovascular age and mortality rate ›

  • Mayo Clinic describes loneliness and social isolation as a growing public health concern linked with depression, heart disease, dementia, and earlier mortality — and emphasizes the importance of meaningful connection, especially during difficult or stressful times.
    Loneliness and social isolation through the holidays ›

  • An article in Communications Medicine argues that kindness is not just a personal virtue, but a realistic public-health strategy. Drawing on randomized trials and population data, the authors suggest that encouraging everyday acts of kindness can improve well-being on a wide scale.
    Kindness as a public health action ›

  • A scoping review in BMC Health Services Research brings together international evidence on kindness in healthcare organizations. It finds that kind behaviours in clinical settings are measurable and meaningful, associated with better experiences of care for patients and a more humane work environment for staff.
    What’s the role of kindness in the healthcare context? A scoping review ›

  • The Oxford Social Prescribing Research Network and the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine describe social prescribing as a way to link patients to non-clinical, community-based support (arts, groups, local organizations) to address loneliness, isolation, and other social needs that affect health.
    Oxford Social Prescribing Research Network ›
    Social prescribing – Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine ›

Together, these findings support the heart of our work: connection and kindness are not extras: they are part of how people cope, heal, and feel less alone.

ᰔᩚ Children’s Care

Children, Play, Art & Hospitalization

For children, hospitalization can be especially frightening and isolating. Research shows that play and creative activities are more than “distractions”: they help children cope and can reduce anxiety.

If you would like to read more, explore the studies linked below.

A teacher with two children, a girl and a boy, sitting at a table in a classroom, drawing colorful pictures with markers.

  • A study in BMC Pediatrics tested hospital play sessions for children aged 3–12. Children who received play interventions had significantly lower anxiety and fewer negative emotions than those receiving usual care, leading the authors to recommend hospital play as part of holistic, quality care for children.
    Play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children ›

  • A 2025 randomized controlled trial compared play therapy and storytelling for hospitalized children and found that both approaches reduced anxiety, with storytelling providing slightly greater benefit. The authors recommend building these creative methods into children’s inpatient care.

    Effect of play therapy and storytelling on the anxiety level of hospitalized children ›

These and similar studies support what pediatric teams and child life specialists practice every day: creative, play based, and art based support helps children express feelings, process fear, and feel more like themselves in medical environments.

ᰔᩚ Real World Programs

Handmade Messages & Our 6 × 6 Canvases

Every Brighten A Heart™ comfort care tote for children, adults, and seniors includes a 6 × 6 hand drawn canvas created by someone in the community. These handmade messages may be small, but they can brighten a room, ease loneliness, and help someone feel seen, supported, and cared for.

Three colorful cartoon style paintings of animals on small canvases, featuring a purple dinosaur, a green bird, and a blue owl, leaning on a wooden display in an outdoor setting.

Evidence and real world programs

At Brighten A Heart™, the 6 × 6 hand drawn canvas tucked inside every tote is our way of carrying this evidence forward. For a child in a pediatric unit, an adult in recovery, or a senior in long term care, that small square of art becomes a visible reminder that somewhere, someone took the time to brighten their heart and their day.

 Together, these findings affirm what we see every day:

Kindness is more than a gesture: it’s a form of care.

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