Blissful Bedrooms
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OUR MISSION

1) To transform the bedrooms of young individuals with limited resources, who live with physical disabilities, use a wheelchair for mobility and rely on caregivers for activities of daily living. Because of their lack of freedom/independence and marginalization in society, disabled youth who reside in under resourced communities often spend a great amount of time in their bedrooms.

2) To welcome young individuals with a wide variety of disabilities into a caring community, including past bedroom makeover recipients, as well as those who are not wheelchair users and haven’t received a bedroom makeover. This includes individuals with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, autism, Down Syndrome, and many others. We nurture and engage the Blissful family by creating regular social events and enriching opportunities, so that disabled youth can enjoy quality time outside of their bedrooms, interact with their peers, develop and maintain long lasting friendships, and experience JOY!

Please download the Blissful Bedrooms postcard at the link below below (Adobe PDF), and help us spread the word! The more people who know about our mission and are inspired to help, the greater impact our organization can have!

Click here to download the Blissful Bedrooms postcard

HISTORY

Blissful Bedrooms was founded in 2009 by Martha and Alex when they decided to paint the bedroom of one of Martha’s former physical therapy students who graduated. Tamisha was extremely disabled with fixed contractures of her extremities, and only had voluntary movement of her head. She was unable to sit upright, change her position independently and was non-verbal with the exception of some basic sounds she used to communicate her needs and emotions. Despite all of her physical limitations, Tamisha was highly intelligent and had a wonderful sense of humor and sassy personality. She was also a great judge of character. Therefore, when Martha introduced Alex to Tamisha for the very first time and got her enthusiastic approval, Martha knew she had a keeper. Martha and Tamisha shared a very special heart connection. Read more…

WHO WE ARE

Blissful Bedrooms is a 501(c)3, charitable, not-for-profit organization comprised entirely of VOLUNTEERS. We are dedicated to empowering, supporting, and enhancing the quality of life of young individuals with disabilities, BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THEIR BEDROOMS.

Blissful Bedrooms volunteers are a group of socially conscious and compassionate human beings from diverse backgrounds. We yearn to contribute our energy and talents to do meaningful volunteer work, in order to give back to our community, help others in need, and we have a wonderful time doing it.

CORE TEAM

Martha
Co-Founder & Lead Volunteer

Alexey
Co-Founder & Lead Volunteer


Adam
Carpenter & Core Volunteer

Sarah
Event Planning & Core Volunteer

WHAT WE DO

Blissful Bedrooms is a branch of Passion for Compassion, Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation. Starting with it’s Founders, Blissful Bedrooms is comprised entirely of volunteers, who unite together to become “Compassion in Action,” with the shared intention to brighten the everyday lives of young individuals with disabilities.

We create a personal sanctuary, conceived exclusively for the individual – a safe haven where they will feel inspired, protected, stimulated, valued, appreciated and LOVED! This is achieved by a collaboration of talented and dedicated volunteers from the community who yearn to use their skills to make a difference. We creatively design and construct a unique environment that is born out of the recipient’s passions, dreams, fantasies and favorite colors. We build custom-made furniture/accessories and create original art work for each bedroom. We also strive to provide the individual with adapted technology, in order to foster their independence.

HOW WE DO IT

Weeks before a makeover, the Core Team meets with the recipient and his/her family in their home, and discuss a color scheme and main theme for the room. We set out to discover what the recipient’s passions and favorite things are. In the past, themes have ranged from rainbows and butterflies, to martial arts and bodybuilding, to angels and oceans, to the Yankees, to Hello Kitty, to fairy kingdoms, etc. We make every effort to bring the individual’s fantasy room alive including all of his/her favorite elements! At that time, we also take a video of the recipient in his/her bedroom, which we use to introduce Blissful Bedrooms volunteers to the young person and for fundraising purposes. Finally, we take photographs and measurements of the bedroom, and create a 3-D computerized graphic of the empty room right then and there in SketchUp, which we later use to create a collaborative design and plan for the bedroom makeover.

Once the recipient’s dream bedroom theme is decided upon, and a makeover date is established, Blissful Bedrooms Core Team members come up with a basic design and recruit committed volunteers for the project. We then arrange a team meeting, during which time we show a presentation breaking down various aspects of the makeover (i.e., fundraising, background on the recipient, inspiration board with ideas for the design, etc.). Then we get down to the fun part of sharing ideas as one large group, and refining the design of the bedroom, while simultaneously altering the 3-D image of the bedroom, which is projected on a large screen or TV. This includes brainstorming ideas based on the theme for the art work, custom built furniture/components, bedding, accessories, arrangement of furniture, etc. After this, the volunteers break into task forces (or focused teams), hone their design ideas, create a project plan and delegate pre-production responsibilities. Before the actual makeover weekend even arrives, several of the team members spend many hours doing preparation work (i.e., fundraising, researching, shopping and purchasing materials for the makeover, building furniture, creating art work and special components, etc).

Finally, we get in there and get our hands dirty! The makeover begins on Friday morning with the foundation work and spans the entire weekend until the room is revealed on Sunday evening. The process looks something like this: Read more…

WHY WE DO IT

We all know the impact our home environment has on the way we feel. In addition, color has an effect on our moods and well-being. Because these young individuals spend so much more time in their bedrooms, we believe it is very important that their environment is visually stimulating, reflects their personality and passions, and is a respite where they can feel content and at peace. Talented artists have committed to painting murals for each room that are inspired by, and created specifically for, the recipient of the makeover. These murals will serve as the young individuals’ companion and friend for many years to come, and truly make each Blissful Bedrooms makeover incredibly special and unique. Interestingly, weeks after the completion of the makeover, friends of the family, neighbors and people from the area, who heard about the bedroom makeover, are stopping by to view the room and art work. Natural the bedroom makeover recipient takes great pride in their bedroom and the knowledge that it was created exclusively for them

Many of the recipients attend or have attended New York City public schools. Students graduate District 75 Special Education schools in NYC when they are 21 years old. A large majority of these students have been attending school since the age of 9 years old or younger. The future for many of these students after they graduate can be bleak, especially if they have disabilities like Tamisha with require them to have a lot of support for activities of daily living, a shortage of financial resources and their parent/caregiver is unable to be a strong and persistent advocate for them for a variety of reasons. With a paucity of stimulating programs for these young adults to attend, many individuals, like Tamisha, are confined to their homes, understimulated, lonely, bored and forgotten by society. Their caregivers are facing economic and social challenges, and are finding it difficult enough to survive and provide the necessities for their family. Although they would love more than anything to provide a dream bedroom for their child, they do not have the resources to do so. Because young individuals like this spend so much time in their bedroom, we feel it is important to create an uplifting and peaceful environment for them, one that is all their own, created just for them by compassionate and caring volunteers. But it doesn’t end there, we do everything we can to welcome them into the Blissful Community and give them opportunities to get out of their bedrooms