This year's endeavors will benefit Respite Care of San Antonio. Respite Care is a series of services and programs administered by professionally trained caregivers in multiple locations throughout San Antonio. These include a full-service child daycare, Mother’s Day and Family Day Out programs, and Parents Night Out programs. Programs are for the child with special needs, as well as siblings.

In the mid-1980s, a core group of individuals saw a gap in the care that this community was providing to children with special needs. They rallied others to help create a system to allow temporary respite for the parents from the intense and constant care required by their beloved child. In response, Respite Care of San Antonio was created.

Together they built Respite Care…a place for parents and families to regroup from the constant pressures of care and caring. A place where their children – who don’t quite ‘fit in’ by some definitions – can participate, be cared for and be celebrated for the individuals they are.

The Davidson Respite House Emergency Shelter is the big house with the great playground in the historical Monte Vista neighborhood. It provides temporary and emergency shelter to children with developmental disabilities and to those with complex medical diagnoses.

Children with these special needs who are taken into state custody from all over Texas are brought here where they are cared for and helped to heal. Children with special needs whose parents must attend to health or family matters can also stay at the Davidson Respite House temporarily.

In August of 2006, Respite Care was licensed as a foster placement agency. A child who is in protective custody can stay at the Davidson Respite House Emergency Shelter from a few days to a few months. After this, if he or she does not go to a biological relative’s home, the child must enter the foster care system. For a child with special needs, finding loving people willing to open their hearts and homes is a challenge.

That is why Respite Care sought and received licensing to be a foster placement agency for children with special and habilitative needs. By getting to know these children as individuals the chances of finding a good match is more probable. Respite Care is also committed to providing training and support for prospective foster parents so that they are better prepared for the challenges, and so the potential of each child can be maximized.