Jacksonville-founded nonprofit nears opening of $10M pediatric palliative care facility (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Jacksonville-based Community PedsCare’s pediatric palliative care program has, for years, operated from the homes of families facing some of the most difficult moments in their child’s life.
Their therapists and other specialists spent their time crisscrossing across Northeast Florida, sometimes driving an hour between visits, to bring hospice and palliative services directly to children. That soon changes.
The opening of Dorion Family Pediatric Center at 4266 Sunbeam Road on Thursday marks a fundamental shift for the local nonprofit. Its first physical location, for an organization that’s historically operated without one, will serve as a centralized hub where children, caregivers and families can connect all under one roof.
“Because of the services that we provide, when you’re working with palliative and hospice patients, it’s a specialty,” said Annie Tuttle, vice president of philanthropy and community impact for The Foundation of Community Hospice and Palliative Care. “It’s very different than some of the other pediatric services [in the area].”
Established by the Community Hospice of Northeast Florida in 2001, the nonprofit’s early development program was created in collaboration with Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Clinic and the University of Florida. It also means they often share patients.
The center broke ground in early 2025 — a $10 million project, Tuttle said last week — named in honor of Dottie Dorion, one of the original founders of Community Hospice in Northeast Florida.
Dorion, who is now 90 years old, was a “pioneer of hospice before anybody really understood what hospice was and they just thought it was a place where people went to die,” Tuttle said in an interview with the Business Journal last year.
A project begun two years ago, the facility will serve as a community and therapy center for pediatric hospice patients and their families, aiming to reduce family isolation and provide a sanctuary for patients.
Generally, the organization helps the families of children with serious illness and injuries work through physical, emotional, spiritual and practical needs, helping coordinate often complex care.
This center is particularly special because pediatric, hospice and palliative care patient programs are virtually unfunded and often don’t exist for communities across the U.S., according to Tuttle.
Here, funding support comes in the form of community philanthropy and donations. Of their $10 million goal, the foundation has raised $8.7 million, she said. It will continue to fundraise through the end of this year.
“Jacksonville is such a philanthropic community, and this program only exists because of the donors that have given,” Tuttle said. “For the last 20 years, we’ve been able to maintain this program because of a lot of our major donors. Having this center is huge.”
Exterior rendering of the Dorion Family Pediatric Center courtesy of the Dorion Family Pediatric Center.