OPEN HEART MAGIC

Open Heart Magic aims to use the therapeutic power of magic and laughter to energize and strengthen seriously ill children and aid their healing.

Hospitalization can be an extremely stressful event for many children and adolescents. Emotions of fear, sadness, loneliness, boredom, and helplessness can have immediate and long-term consequences on a child’s physical health and emotional well-being. Our volunteer Hospital Magicians use interactive, close-up magic, and humor to promote socialization, enhance self-esteem, and increase opportunities for choice and control.

Our goal is to continually increase the impact we're able to have on pediatric patients by sustained growth in patients we visit, number of volunteer Hospital Magicians, and number of partner hospitals.

We're constantly working with hospitals to increase the number of patients that are able to participate in OHM's Bedside Magic. We have created infection control protocol that allows our volunteers to work with patients in isolation. We've also worked to service patients in other areas of the hospital, such as burn units and the emergency room.

Each year OHM hosts Magic University, a 12-week training program for volunteers, in Chicago, Cleveland, and Ann Arbor. After graduation, our Hospital Magicians visit patients in 11 Hospital Partners in the Chicagoland area, 2 in Cleveland, and 1 in Ann Arbor.

OHM has an excellent working relationship with the Child Life Department in its partner hospitals. An open dialogue between the hospital coordinators and OHM employees allows for us to explore potential new patients that we can reach. In addition, having 150+ volunteer hospital magicians in hospitals gives us front-line access to information about potential areas of need.

The training of Open Heart Magic volunteers has been done in house since the organization was founded. This 12-week intense training program teaches volunteers everything they need to know to perform magic, and more importantly, use the magic as a therapeutic tool to improve the hospital experience for patients. This consistent volunteer education allows us to increase the number of Hospital Magicians we have visiting patients as well as ensure only the highest quality volunteers continue serving.

We have been able to accomplish our goals of increasing the impact, as determined by number of patients who experience one-on-one bedside magic, and number of magicians each year since 2004. We've increased our donor base each year and have successfully been able to expand without putting the program at risk.