Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Northeast Ohio and Unite Us Support Families with Sick Children Nationwide 

CLEVELAND, OHIO, July 11, 2023 – Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio is partnering with Unite Us, the nation’s leading software company enabling cross-sector collaboration, to expand its national resource database. Licensed Unite Us users will have access to an additional 3,400 organizations and nearly 2,000 programs of social care resources provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio (RMHC® NEO). 

Historically, Ronald McDonald House® programs were established nationwide to provide families with sick children the ability to stay together during hospitalizations and access supportive services. Over time, RMHC Chapters created additional programs. RMHC NEO’s expansions included RedTreehouse.org, a resource directory with national, state, and regional services needed by families with sick children. Their standards of practice align closely with the principles of data fidelity and curation at Unite Us. Together, RMHC NEO’s RedTreehouse.org and Unite Us will expand their reach to connect more people across the nation to experts who care—getting them the help they need when they need it. 

“RMHC Chapters support family-centered care, allowing families to stay close, be together, and be actively involved in their child’s healthcare,” said Craig Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of RMHC NEO. “Providing critical resources like housing, food, and transportation keeps families strong to care for their child. Often, they need more—that was the impetus for the RedTreehouse.org resource site. Our collaboration with Unite Us will help more families access needed resources.” 

Unite Us’ software allows partners real-time communication and record-keeping across organizations. It also provides an electronic record of services and outcomes, which reduces duplication of services and documents resource needs and gaps. 

RMHC NEO acknowledges the importance of addressing social care to improve a person’s and a family’s overall well-being. They recognize several social care referral pathways and believe that individuals needing services should have access to all available resources and services regardless of the entry point. In this case, a licensed Unite Us user located anywhere in the U.S. can securely send referrals through the Unite Us Platform and access the resources, programs, and services provided by the Red Treehouse resource directory, connecting more children and families across the nation—especially in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—to care.

“The collective goal of our collaboration with RMHC NEO is to increase access to needed social care resources and provide an additional layer of support for individuals and families across the United States,” said Irene Wong, Senior Director of Channel Partnerships at Unite Us. “Together, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio and Unite Us are committed to improving health across all communities.” 

National community-based organizations make up half of the expansion of the resource database, and the other half are from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 

RMHC Northeast Ohio and Unite Us are coming together with a people-come-first mindset to best meet the needs of the individuals in the community, regardless of their circumstances. Families with sick children will now have access to a robust coordinated care network that will connect them to important services, such as assistance with housing, transportation, food insecurity, and more so they can focus on what’s important: the recovery of their loved ones.