Beads Of Courage Inc

Beads of Courage, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and teens coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them through our Arts-in-Medicine Programs. We believe in creating a context for caring transactions to transpire through our community and encouragement programs.

Since 2005, Beads of Courage, Inc. has established collaborative partnerships in caring with over 300 hospitals nationally and internationally and worked with several community organizations to make healing happen through the use of beads as a historical art form.

Our Mission

To provide innovative, arts-in-medicine programs for children coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them.

Our Vision: 

To advance the science of caring. Beads of Courage, Inc. is proud to be affiliated with the Watson Science Caring Institute and in 2013, we established the Center for Arts-in-Nursing to boldly pursue our vision.

Our Goals: 

• To transform the bedside experience of caring for children and teens with serious illness through innovative Arts-in-Medicine Programs;
• To model collaborative strategies to strengthen human connectedness through the gift of beads that bestow honor and express human caring;
• To contribute to the science, practice, and implementation of evidence-based interventions.

Our Programs:

Every Beads of Courage® program integrates the use of beads, the earliest art form known to humans, as visible, tangible symbols of human experiences that need and deserve to be expressed. Every time a bead is given courage is honored, suffering is alleviated, resilience is strengthened, and the experience of human caring is affirmed.

The Beads of Courage Program is our flagship program and is a resilience-based intervention designed to support and strengthen children and teens coping with serious illness and their families. It is the standard of care in more than 300 children's hospitals worldwide. Through the program, children tell their story using colorful beads that serve as meaningful symbols honoring their courage displayed along their unique treatment path. There are specific beads of courage program bead guides to support children coping with serious illness such as cancer, blood conditions, cardiac conditions, various chronic conditions, rehabilitation, trauma and burn injury recovery and experiences in pediatric intensive care and neonatal intensive care units.

Beads of Courage, Inc. is an approved public charity under I.R.S. Code Section 501(c)(3), based in Tucson, Arizona.

Providing innovative arts in medicine programs for children coping with serious illness, their families and the clinicians who care for them.

Beads Of Courage Inc is a Charity participating in the NASCAR Day Giveathon 2023 a Giving Day event, presented by The NASCAR Foundation.