Programs
NICU Family Day Out
2025 Event Information
NICU Family Day Out is a fully accessible family event, where carnival meets field day. Where families of NICU kids of all kinds of outcomes come together. Where the possibility of the incredible things these kids can do and be is fully celebrated.
NICU Family Day Out is an annual gathering for Colorado families. This joyful day includes train rides, a petting zoo, water play areas, face painting, snow cones, snacks, bounce houses, and an opportunity to connect with other caregivers and families who have experienced all journeys through the NICU including extreme prematurity, traumatic births, and other situations.
Having a child in the NICU affects the entire family unit, and we invite entire families to come and share in the celebration, connection and memory-making. We create this space for our NICU families to experience the healing power of finding joy together after often long and difficult roads, and to promote healing and possibility as they watch their children, regardless of the outcomes of prematurity or other NICU-related stories, and live vibrantly into their incredible futures in the world beyond the NICU.
NICU Family Day Out is all-out hope and celebration. Check out our Events page for upcoming dates and to sign up for future event info!
Check out NICU Family
Day Out
Our 2024 NICU Family Day Out was so much fun! Dozens of families joined us in Louisville, CO for activities, crafts, food trucks, and a petting zoo. A beautiful day of connection and community!
Take a look at the fun in this video.
“... Loved connecting with other families. We saw how our stories overlapped.”
“Supportive, joyous environment!”
“We could say yes to all the special activities for our kids we usually can’t afford.”
“The day turned out to be more incredible than I could have imagined.”
Parent Care Workshops
2025 Event Information
Each fall, we bring together parents and caregivers of former micropreemies to experience a daytime session focused on healing care and tender connection with others who have faced similar circumstances. This adults-only morning is focused on the personal healing journey after long, and often traumatizing, stays in the hospital with their children, and creating new pathways toward futures full of hope and possibility.
Facilitated by a licensed family and trauma therapist, parents and caregivers spend time sharing their stories and receiving guided insight about trauma, healing therapies, and true self-care, forging lasting connections through the sharing of our stories.
Because so much of the post-NICU journey continues in survival mode that feels akin to the NICU experience itself - medically complex children and experiences, isolation, changes to work and routine - we recognize the importance of offering parents a safe space to process. Our workshops bring together NICU parents, offering an opportunity to lay down the burdens of the micropreemie journey for a morning, and to focus on illuminating some of the most difficult pieces of their story to move towards healing and living full, beautiful lives for themselves and their families.
Parents, caregivers, and families of all configurations and flavors are welcome. Couples of all kinds, single parents, primary caregivers, birthing and non-birthing parents: you are welcome here!
Sign up on our Events page.
“[I] can take steps to integrate our experience and build our capacity to cope.”
“... a space to feel and say what is not always welcomed in typical spaces as a post-NICU parent.”
What is a Parent Care Workshop Like?
Take a peek behind the scenes at a recent Parent Care Workshop, offered to caregivers of micropreemies. Our annual event is hosted in Layafette, CO.
Come bask in a little self-care while you process, grieve, and laugh with other families who have experienced a season in the NICU, too.
“[I felt] held and strengthened... I realized we are not alone.”
“[The facilitator] was amazing at hearing and reflecting back wisdom.”
Online Courses
New in 2025
All participants in our Parent Care Workshops will receive access to special online programming.
These supplementary courses are designed to offer year-round support and reflection on the hope, healing and possibility reclaimed during our session together as a group.
FAQs About Family Programs
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The NICU Family Day Out is held on a Saturday morning in mid-June every year. Currently we rent an accessible space from a church in Louisville, Colorado that has indoor and outdoor facilities. See our Upcoming Events page for this year’s specifics, or to receive info as it becomes available.
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Any family that has experienced the NICU in any capacity or for any duration, for any cause or scenario. This includes family members from siblings to parents and caregivers to grandparents and other relatives or close friends.
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We are thrilled to provide this event free of charge!
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We provide snacks, beverages and entertainment activities for event attendees! You are welcome to bring anything that would make your time with us more enjoyable for you and your family.
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This workshop is held annually in October at an accessible space in Lafayette, Colorado.
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This adults-only session is for any parent or caregiver, including couples, who have experienced the journey of extreme prematurity with a child born at 28 weeks or earlier and/or under/at two pounds in weight. The content of this workshop is specifically tailored to the experience of extreme prematurity.
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We are thrilled to offer this workshop free-of-charge to parents and caregivers of micropreemies.
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We provide snacks, beverages, journals, yoga mats, and other therapeutic goods to be used during our time together and taken home. You are welcome to bring anything that would make your time with us more comfortable and healing for yourself.
