The Steps Toward Adult Responsibility Program, which provides social support for adolescents living with chronic illnesses such as cancer and diabetes, will be shut down this June as its funding dries up. STAR, run through the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, connects area teens with Dartmouth College student mentors also living with chronic health conditions and offers counseling by psychologist and STAR Program Director Dr. Mark Detzer. STAR members gather every five to six weeks for dinner discussion groups at which they discuss strategies to cope with their illnesses.
Currently, as many as 15 Dartmouth students are involved with the organization some through Tucker internships and Senior Fellowship research.
Katherine Garvey '99, who founded the program, described it as different from other mentoring programs.
"I was able to contribute to students in the community far beyond the normal Big Brother Big Sister relationship," Garvey said.
Elizabeth Abernathey '07, who co-chaired for the program this past fall, agreed.
"For both the teenagers and the Dartmouth students, the STAR events are times when we can come together and speak frankly of our experiences without the fear of being judged. They are times in which we can find support and simply have fun and laugh together."
The STAR Program was originally funded by the late Phyllis Wilson, whose $1.2 million donations will run out by June of this year. Despite previous attempts to fundraise by writing grant proposals and mailers, donations received will only carry the program through the end of the school year.
"We will have no funds to continue this program from July 1," Jessy LaValley, STAR's program manager, said. "We continue to look at every avenue that might be possible to us."
In order to stretch its dwindling budget, STAR has also started to scale down its operation. The program currently reduced its budget to $120,000 to $150,000, however, further cuts were rejected in favor of retaining the essential nature of the program.
"Would we be able to scale [the budget] back even more? Yes, but we would lose some of the services we provide now," LaValley said.
The Program has also been unable to receive any monetary aid from the Children's Hospital which, according to Dr. John Modlin in an article in the Valley News, is experiencing financial troubles of its own. Members of STAR believe that the loss of the program would be unfortunate.
"Obviously, we're all very disappointed that DHMC has decided to cut programs that are seen as 'non-essential' or having so-called immeasurable, intangible benefits," Abernathey said. "I am certain, though, that if any of the administrators who made the decision to cut the funding attended a single STAR event, they would have no doubt of STAR's value."
There have been recent talks of turning STAR into a volunteer-based program that works with various personnel within Dartmouth Hitchcock and parents who are currently involved with the organization. Both members and Dartmouth students agree, however, that the change would be significant.
"It would be a very different program," LaValley said, adding that a post-June STAR would lose its professional help. "They wouldn't have the benefit of having Mark [Detzer] as a psychologist."
"I think it's going to be a huge loss even if it's kept up informally," Garvey said.
While the future of STAR seems uncertain, it is still accepting new members in the hopes of continuing. If the STAR Program receives enough funding to keep it running past June, Detzer plans to work toward a multi-prong financing approach that would include writing grants as well as searching for corporate sponsors.
By serving adolescents who suffer from chronic physical health conditions, STAR Program provides a service that is, according to its members, incomparable.
"Doing things a different way is essential for kids," Dr. Mark Detzer said. "This whole program is really out of the box to begin with."
"I think this program is unbelievable. We don't have this down here," Garvey said, speaking of her experience in Children's Hospital Boston where she is completing her residency.
