The Kidney Coaching Foundation
 

Who We Are

The Kidney Coaching Foundation (KCF) is a not-for-profit organization that delivers life coaching and personal development programs to adolescent and young adults ages 12-21 who have kidney disease.

Our goal is to provide each member of our program with a trained volunteer coach who guides them in acquiring the tools necessary to comply with their medical treatment, and also helps them to navigate the dual complexities and challenges of life as a young adult experiencing the effects of life with kidney disease.

Our purpose is to inspire, motivate, and encourage our youth that it is possible to live a productive and successful life with renal disease.
 

Mission & Vision

The Mission of the Kidney Coaching Foundation is to increase medical compliance among young kidney patients who might otherwise pose a health risk to themselves, and to provide support for their families, through mentorship, education, referrals, and temporary housing. It is our long-term vision to support kidney patients and their families, not only in the North Carolina area, but across the United States.
 

The Need

Many adolescents, young adults, and their caregivers go through emotional and physical transformations at the onset of learning they must cope with a kidney disease. Managing the effects of the disease actually causes many life changes.

In addition, at this stage of life, adolescents and young adults just beginning to discover who they are as individuals, are apt to experience feelings of “invincibility”, defiance, and rebelliousness. While these are normal emotions during this period of a young person’s development, they can also lead to a negative effect on medical treatment, usually resulting in treatment noncompliance which places the patient’s health at risk.

Through group and one-on-one coaching programs we seek to partner with the young patient in helping them to understand what is happening to them and how it will affect their daily life. We will also assist them in creating and achieving goals that will foster a proactive, responsible stance about their medical care, as well as acquire a positive conviction about their ability to plan and make choices that have an affirmative impact on their future.

 
Benefits

KCF’s programs are designed to:

• increase medical compliance among adolescents and young adult patients;
   
• establish a sense of solidarity and common purpose among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers;
   
• provide a mentoring resource beyond psychiatric treatment for patients and their caregivers;
   
• provide education on nutrition and healthy lifestyle issues unique to kidney patients;
   
• see to specific needs of caregivers with translation services, seminars, and affinity groups;
   
• be a source of motivation and encourage a positive social outlook that there is hope - and quality of life – during and after kidney disease.

* In the future we hope to provide the caregivers of children undergoing hospital treatment transportation and temporary housing (Rules will apply).