Beads of Courage, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and teens coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them through our Arts-in-Medicine Programs. We believe in creating a context for caring transactions to transpire through our community and encouragement programs.

Since 2005, Beads of Courage, Inc. has established collaborative partnerships in caring with hundreds of hospitals nationally and internationally and worked with several community organizations to make healing happen through the use of beads as a historical art form.

Every dollar raised through our Birdies for Charities fundraiser will directly support Beads of Courage Programs at Houston-area children’s hospitals. Thanks to your generosity, we’re able to provide the beads we need to continue to support children and teens locally in Houston. 

• Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital
• MD Anderson Cancer Center Children’s Cancer Hospital
• Texas Children’s Hospital

Through our programs, we provide the opportunity for COURAGE to be honored, HOPE to be given, and JOY to be experienced

Our Mission

To provide innovative, arts-in-medicine programs for children coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them.

Our Vision: 

To advance the science of caring. Beads of Courage, Inc. is proud to be affiliated with the Watson Science Caring Institute and in 2013, we established the Center for Arts-in-Nursing to boldly pursue our vision.

Our Goals: 

• To transform the bedside experience of caring for children and teens with serious illness through innovative Arts-in-Medicine Programs;
• To model collaborative strategies to strengthen human connectedness through the gift of beads that bestow honor and express human caring;
• To contribute to the science, practice, and implementation of evidence-based interventions.

Our Programs:

Every Beads of Courage® program integrates the use of beads, the earliest art form known to humans, as visible, tangible symbols of human experiences that need and deserve to be expressed. Every time a bead is given courage is honored, suffering is alleviated, resilience is strengthened, and the experience of human caring is affirmed.