Our Mission

We inspire self-awareness and self-reliance in individuals with chronic health conditions, their families, and their communities. We empower them to engage with their treatment, to live life to its fullest, and, in turn, to inspire others.

Our Vision

“I will strive to solidify the foundation for our non-profit so we can continue to serve those in need and expand our programs and education services to a greater range of patients and caretakers of rare disorders.”

Joseph Gibbons, President

One of our programs, After the Shock, helps families and care givers work through the shock when their child receives a difficult diagnosis.

Through providing education, support and access, our Vision is where people with chronic conditions and their families have full access to the services and support they need.

Education

To ensure people with chronic conditions can benefit from vital educational services and community events

Access

To raise awareness of the barriers for marginalized groups and provide solutions to access proper care

Support

To provide help with financial and personal challenges to enable people with chronic conditions to take full advantage of services and support

Values

To work with integrity and openness to the benefit of the people we serve.

The needs of those managing a rare, chronic health condition are expansive. The journey to diagnosis can take years. Lack of knowledge, frequent absence from work or the inability to work, increased costs, insurance barriers and an overburdened health care system, that promotes expediency, often leave individuals and families struggling with daily feelings of hopelessness, isolation and fear.

At CHES Foundation we support individuals and families through educational programming, conference scholarships, financial assistance, campaigning and support services.

About CHES

Comprehensive Health Education Services (CHES) was founded in 2009 by three friends, all with hands-on experience with chronic health conditions.

Seeing a void in patient education, the founders decided to create CHES as a resource to provide individuals with chronic medical conditions with the support that allows them to assert their independence and the knowledge to more fully engage in their treatment.

Over the years CHES has grown in scope and reach, attracting national and international attention for our unceasing work on behalf of our ever-widening community. With the important help of our funders, CHES offers those in need with a wide range of resources, including on-site patient programming, education, and the latest information on research and treatment.

From conception to 2022, CHES was owned and managed by Janet Brewer and Eric Lowe, both of whom live with chronic conditions, their own or those of family members. In 2023, CHES Foundation was created in its place to better serve patients and their families with a broader reach for funding support to continue its mission.

The contraction of our name – CHES – inspired the purple chess piece design of our logo. But the roots behind this design run deeper. Hemophilia and similar bleeding disorders were long considered “royal diseases,” as they frequently affected members of ruling class families. Since chess was also considered the “royal game,” and purple the color of royalty, we feel our logo pays homage to the long history of chronic bleeding disorders.