We are at EXTREME risk of losing…
Our HOME
Our Children’s Education Center
Our Engineering Empathy Work Place
Our Healing/Medical space,
And most heartbreakingly,
Our 12 Year-Old Son EMORY.
Right before we stopped being able to pay rent and began struggling to put food on our table, we were busy Engineering Empathy, parenting, advocating, connecting, saving lives… all while living off savings and credit though feeling safe in knowing that someone was set to give $1 Million to support our work. That funding disappeared in October, the same month our then 11yo son had a medical crisis requiring multiple 911 calls, extensive testing, and spending over 3 weeks in multiple hospitals. After Elise’s Cancer, Emory’s medical crisis and the rest of our challenges, now with the threat of eviction we are drowning again.
The shape Emory is in makes it extremely dangerous for any forced move due to his symptoms. It is a full time job for all 3 of us to take care of him and if we were to lose our apartment it’s not just the loss of a place to sleep. It’s our workspace that has allowed us to be so productive even with our challenges. It’s our childrens’ place of learning where we put the best methods from around the world into practice - especially as Emory hasn’t been able to physically attend his school for the past 8 months. And, it’s a space we’ve built out with healing and medical equipment that is not attainable in most places and are not easily movable.
We met Emory when he was 6 days old and was being taken off of life support. In-utero he was exposed to drugs, alcohol, and more trauma than you can imagine. At birth and in the first several years of his life the doctors said he would be hypersensitive to light and sound, never want to be held or touched, never be able to read, and possibly not be able to walk or talk. Because of Elise’s lifetime history with children and child development we fiercely advocated for early intervention and the best medical care available because we will never settle for less. He has now accomplished all these things and is one of the kindest, smartest, funniest, intuitive, and most emotionally intelligent kids in the world. His most pressing issue is that he’s in a flare caused by the autoimmune brain disorder (PANDAS/PANS/AE) he developed when he was five that has made his life, and ours, debilitating.
Our apartment is our lifeline: it’s Emory and Jensenn’s school, our medical center, our workspace. Losing it would be devastating, especially as Elise is still healing from Stage 3 breast cancer, Breast Implant Illness and chronic pain, leaving Jonathan as full-time caregiver, driver, and provider.
We’ve dedicated our lives to building Engineering Empathy - a global movement to heal communities, support misunderstood children and adults, and educate on the early signs of suffering to prevent suicide and violence.
We’ve been moving mountains to support so many through our work with Engineering Empathy while facing intense resource and medical challenges. At 16, Jensenn is thriving and involved in everything Engineering Empathy - participating in meetings around the world, connecting, teaching, advocating, impacting, and providing resources and perspectives we would be completely missing otherwise. Devastatingly, the immediate challenges are keeping us from sharing what we’ve learned to create better lives for many and, ultimately, stopping people from killing themselves and others. The devastation is harshest every time a child’s suicide or school shooting comes across our desk where we find that we could have stopped them if we had a platform to share our knowledge of the symptoms to look for and the ways to support them.
We’ve been stepping up and supporting so many and are now asking for financial support so that we can have a secure foundation:
To remain safe in our home,
To bring Emory to full health and back to the school he loves,
To keep our family safely together,
To continue the work of our Engineering Empathy organization,
To grow our impact,
To fulfill our huge purpose on this planet,
To SAVE LIVES.
We need you.
Please support us and share widely so we can support the rest of the world.
Grateful to be in the arena, Engineering Empathy 🌈💖💫
With Love and Gratitude,
Elise, Jonathan, Jensenn and Emory
