JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new center opening in Jacksonville aims to provide children with serious illnesses and their families something many say is hard to find: a place designed specifically for them.
The Dorion Family Pediatric Center, set to officially open June 11 inside the Earl B. Hadlow Center for Caring on Sunbeam Road, is being described as Florida’s first dedicated pediatric hospice and palliative care center and one of only a few such facilities in the nation.
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The center will become the new home of Community PēdsCare, a program that currently serves more than 300 children across Northeast Florida living with serious and complex medical conditions.
For families like that of Andjay Nesterenko, the program has already been life-changing.
Andjay, who lives with cerebral palsy, is known for his outgoing personality and love of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Through Community PēdsCare, he had the opportunity to meet Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, a memory he still talks about with excitement.
His mother, Antonina Nesterenko, said her son refuses to let his disability define him.
“He is a child with a disability, and he understands that he is not like every kid, but he does not feel that he can’t do something,” she said.
Community PēdsCare provides a range of services for children and families, including music therapy, psychosocial support and care coordination. Antonina said music therapy through the program helped Andjay gain independence and eventually begin walking on his own.
Until now, nearly all of those services have been delivered in patients’ homes.
“We service a little over 300 children in the community, and currently right now all those services that we provide are being done in the homes, which can present a challenge at times,” said Annie Tuttle, vice president of philanthropy and community impact for The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care.
The new center is designed to expand access to care while creating opportunities for children and families to connect with others facing similar challenges.
The facility will offer therapeutic recreation, caregiver support programs, psychosocial and spiritual care services, and gathering spaces designed to foster community among families navigating complex medical conditions.
Tuttle said one of the biggest challenges many families face is isolation.
“What we’ve discovered is that a lot of our families and patients feel isolated,” she said. “There’s not a lot of support for them outside of their home.”
The center was intentionally designed to feel welcoming and child-friendly rather than clinical, with spaces for play, therapy and family interaction.
Community Hospice officials say centralizing services in one location will also allow care teams to spend less time traveling and more time directly supporting patients and families.
The center is named in honor of Dottie Dorion and the Dorion family, whose support helped make the project possible.
For Antonina, the new facility represents more than a building.
“What it will provide to kids, it’s life-changing,” she said. “It’