GiGi’s Playhouse Simi Valley & Dignitiy Northridge Medical Center – supporting each other to make a difference.

GiGi’s Playhouse Simi Valley was recently invited to participate in Diversity Week at Dignity Northridge Medical Center. This came about following an introductory Zoom meeting with members of the Northridge Hospital Diversity Committee, where Laurie Samaan and Ashley Duran of GiGi’s Community Outreach Team shared detailed information about our new playhouse opening in Simi Valley, our overall mission, and our free program offerings for individuals with Down syndrome of all ages. The team was excited to learn about GiGi’s and how we will be serving our surrounding communities. We discussed the many ways we could potentially partner with Dignity Northridge, both now and in the future, and talked especially about the importance of reaching new parents receiving a Down syndrome diagnosis either before or after the child is born. This introductory meeting with the Diversity team led to a subsequent meeting with the Director of Labor & Delivery and the Director of Pediatric NICU & Critical Care. What an amazing opportunity it was to speak directly to these key front-line leaders! In addition to presenting an overview of GiGi’s Playhouse, Laurie spoke to them about the importance of how a diagnosis is delivered to new parents. We discussed the many scenarios in which this messaging might take place, including the importance of saying “Congratulations!” When asked if they had any resources or information they could give to new parents about DS, they replied no, but were very willing to pass information on. With that, the door swung open for us to provide them with vital information they could share with new parents when an opportunity should arise. Now that our local hospital Simi Adventist has closed its Labor & Delivery department, we will likely see families focusing on hospitals like Northridge, Los Robles or Tarzana to meet this critical need. 

Following these two virtual meetings, we were invited to set up an information table outside the cafeteria area for Diversity Week and during the busy lunch rush. Our placement was pretty sweet…right next to the popular Cookies Around the World table. Talk about high visibility! We were able to meet doctors, nurses, and staff members from across the organization and tell them about GiGi’s Playhouse. It was interesting to learn that many of the healthcare workers we interacted with had a family member or close personal connection to someone with a disability, including a few who have a loved one with Down syndrome. The more we get the word out, the more we find this to be true and it affirms the importance of our outreach efforts and the power of networking. We were also able to personally meet the Labor/Delivery and Pediatric NICU directors, who took time from their busy day to stop by and welcome us. We were ready with our information packets for them to take back to their departments and share with DS families. Gina Rai, the Pediatric NICU Director, was so excited about GiGi’s Playhouse she immediately called her close friend, who has a young baby with DS, to tell her about us. Gina also offered to introduce us to the L&D and NICU team at her former hospital, Valley Presbyterian.  As these important opportunities to connect are presented, we will continue moving forward with our strategy to ensure all hospitals, birth centers, and OB/GYNs in our area know about GiGi’s Playhouse Simi Valley and are equipped to refer families to us. After all, we understand the importance of community on this journey and that new families know they are not alone.