This week we’re talking about various ways you can get involved at Lacuna Loft! We provide all of our programs free of charge to young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.
One easy, simple way you can help? Choose Lacuna Loft as your charity of choice when you shop on Amazon, using AmazonSmile! Whenever you shop, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Lacuna Loft!
Click the box below and it will send you straight to Amazon!
This weekend I’m in Orlando (again, ha!) for the Young Survival Coalition Summit! If you’re at the event, stop by our table in the exhibit hall to say hello!
I’ll be instagramming my way around town so keep in touch! Lacuna Loft is all about bringing the young adult cancer community of patients, survivors, and caregivers together. Sometimes we do that digitally and every once in a while, we get to do it in person too! We’ll have some great info at our booth and a giveaway! And we’ll be other places this year too! If you’re at CancerCon in Denver, the ONS Congress in Washington DC, or ASCO in Chicago, come and find Lacuna Loft! We would absolutely love to meet you in person!!!
Lacuna Loft runs on the love and support from our donors and our partners.
Support us when you shop for your Valentine! Go to AmazonSmile and Amazon donates to Lacuna Loft.  Every little bit counts and you can support Lacuna Loft whenever you shop on Amazon!
If you want to donate directly, know that your gift translates directly into impact!
$15 offers a young adult journaling prompts weekly, for one month.
$25 provides one young adult with a book during our Young Adult Cancer Book Club.
$50 gives one young adult a supply box for a Creative Workshop.
$250 allows one young adult to participate in a session of our 8-week Unspoken Ink: Young Adult Cancer Creative Writing Group.
A few months ago we launched our newest program here at Lacuna Loft, the Speaker Series!  Our fourth Speaker Series Talk will launch on Tuesday, November 14th!  Starting on that day, you’ll be able to watch Mallory talk about Lacuna Loft’s Origin Story. While the talk won’t be live, we’d love for you to submit your questions!  After reading a little abstract on the talk, fill out the short form at the bottom of this post with all of your questions!  Submit as many as you want and Mallory will do her best to answer them at the end of her talk!
Just recently, someone sent me an email with the question, “How can I do what you do?” and it got me thinking. What is Lacuna Loft? What do we do? Where did we start? And, how did we get there? I’m asked questions all the time about starting a nonprofit, what being a woman CEO is like, where Lacuna Loft’s name comes from, and more. Well! We’re talking about all of that and more during this upcoming speaker series talk!
Psst…want to submit a topic for a future Speaker Series? Â You can do so here!
Transparency is very important to the Lacuna Loft Team.  In the spirit of transparency, we’ll always update you on what’s happening behind the scenes as well as the nitty gritty of our financials.
Lacuna Loft is funded from a variety of sources.  We have a crew of great donors (if you’d like to join the Flight Crew, go here!), we form partnerships with companies and receive donations or are awarded grants from them (which you can see here) either fueling Lacuna Loft’s general needs or specific programs, and eventually we’ll host some sort of fundraising event (but we haven’t done one yet).  Since we’re a nonprofit, gifts are all tax-deductible to the full extent of IRS rules + regulations and we provide all of our programs at no charge to young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.
Over this past fiscal year (July 2016 – June 2017), our expenditures can be broken up into three different areas:  Administrative, Fundraising, and Programs.  You can see our financial breakdown in the image below and you can learn more about our transparency here.
Lacuna Loft counts on our strong group of supporters…whether you’re a part of our larger young adult cancer community, a healthcare provider, a volunteer with Lacuna Loft, or you support Lacuna Loft financially…every contribution makes Lacuna Loft’s support programs possible.  Each and every one of you plays an important part in providing support to young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.  Thank you for all you do!
Lacuna Loft is breaking into Instagram Stories this month!  We share periodically on instagram anyway, but this month we’re taking you behind the scenes every day at Lacuna Loft with stories!
Since you’re going behind the scenes this month, you and I will be spending a lot of instagram story time together! Â We’ll talk about our programs, we’ll show you our office, you’ll be the first to hear which book club book is chosen for the next round, you’ll follow me, Lacuna Loft’s CEO on Lacuna Loft related errands and meetings, you’ll meet our Board of Directors, and more. Â So, much, MORE! Â Sometimes there will be one story and sometimes more than one but we’ll have such a great adventure together!
SO!  Follow us on instagram and check in each day to see a different piece of Lacuna Loft, @LacunaLoft on Instagram stories!  I’m so excited to take you behind the scenes with me!
Psst! Â If you start watching the stories and find yourself curious about a piece of Lacuna Loft that we’re not showing you, let us know! Email info@lacunaloft.org or send us a message on instagram!
Some of our best partners are found in our healthcare providers.  Whether it’s that nurse who always listens, the physician who always takes you seriously, that social worker who helped you find what you needed, or that admin who schedules your appointments at just the right times for you and smiles the whole time, our healthcare providers help us towards that cure.  Lacuna Loft loves working with these medical magic makers, helping them spread the news to as many young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers as possible, letting you know that you deserve age-appropriate support and resources.
If you’re a healthcare provider, Lacuna Loft now has a page just for you! Â Use it to order brochures to share with your patients, sign up for program announcements, or just reach out to us with something exciting happening on your end!
Check out your very own Healthcare Provider Portal!
And we’re back! Â We hope your June was fruitful, relaxing, and enjoyable!
Behind the scenes, lots of wonderful things have been happening.  We’ve added some wonderfully generous partners to the Lacuna Loft team of support, we’re almost done launching a new program (more on this soon!), we had a great Open Write Night last week (and will have another one later this month so sign up if you haven’t already!), we have continued hosting YAC Hangouts (with another one happening tomorrow night so sign up if you haven’t already!), we added a spot on our website specific to healthcare providers (we see you out there and we LOVE you!), our Founder and a few of our Board Members attended the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference and had a fabulous time there connecting with healthcare providers, we’ve been getting a few Creative Workshops ready to announce (sign up if you haven’t already to be alerted when these are announced so you can sign up!), and more!  Seriously…so much more!
Things have been happening in the month of June and so much is about to happen in the coming months. Â More Creative Workshops, more YAC Hangouts (July 6th and July 19th this month!), a new program, more Outreach, more Book Club, more more more more more!
We hope you had a wonderful and safe July 4th! Â Enjoy our Young Adult Voices posts as they continue on and be sure to check out the rest of our programs as they announce dates and sign-ups! Â Lacuna Loft is for you, by you, offering support for young adult cancer survivors and caregivers. Â You are amazing, you are strong, you are courageous, and we are so honored to be here with you.
Excited to be back!
P.S. Â Interested in volunteering, sharing your story, or letting us know any of your thoughts or comments? Â Don’t be shy! Â Email info@lacunaloft.org!
We have now officially made our way through the top 31 articles in Lacuna Loft’s Young Adult Voices, archives. Â These articles, as chosen by you, are the ones most often read and returned to. Â Some of them were written way back in 2014, before Lacuna Loft was even a nonprofit!
I’d like to thank all of the contributors to Lacuna Loft’s Young Adult Voices blog and especially the writers whose work was featured in the top 31 posts. Â Over the past month, we’ve re-read articles by Cecilia, Anna, me (Mallory), Karen, Dana, Nikhil, Heather, Michele, Jennifer, Imogen, Christabel, Bekah, Mahalia, and Christina. Â Thank you!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…the power that comes with the courage and vulnerability it takes to share these stories is incredible. Â Every time you share your story, someone else dealing with cancer as a young adult realizes they are not alone. Â They understand that someone else out there has been through what they are going through.
Spring has been busy at Lacuna Loft. Â We went to CancerCon in April, the Oncology Nursing Society Congress in May, and we’re headed to the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting this weekend. Â As many of you head into the end of the school year and the start of summer, we’re taking a break on the Young Adult Voices blog for the next month. Â We’ll be back in July, with more of the great stories and content that you have come to expect from Young Adult Voices.
Our other programs will keep running.  You can still count on attending our Young Adult Cancer Creative Writing Group Open Write Nights (sign up in you’re interested in attending) and we’ll have a few Young Adult Cancer (YAC) Hangouts.  (We’ll keep you updated on those if you’re signed up).
Until we are back, enjoy our other programs (try something new with us!) and sift through our numerous archives for anything you might be interested in. Â See you soon!
Today, April 7, 2017, Lacuna Loft celebrates our 2-year anniversary of being a nonprofit organization!!!
In honor of our two years, we’re going to spend the next month and a half sharing our top 30 posts.  Get ready to read (or re-read) some wonderful pieces of wisdom from so many of our contributors.  Our book club’s posts will continue on as normal on Mondays but we’ll be disrupting our friday, link round up posts.
How do we choose the top 30, you ask? Â Directly from you! Â We’ve dug into our analytics and have identified the 30 most popular posts (out of all 763 articles that have been published before today). Â I’m really looking forward to walking down memory lane and picking out some of the gems hidden in our archives. Â These articles feature the voices of many, many courageous young adult cancer survivors and caregivers who stepped forward, showed up, and helped someone know that they weren’t alone. Â These 30 are the best of the best and I’m very happy to share them with you again!
Like what you see and want to add your voice? Â Email info@lacunaloft.org and we’d love to chat with you!
P.S. Lacuna Loft’s other programs are still going strong during this next month of flashbacks! Â Keep up to date on our social channels! Â Instagram, facebook, and twitter!
