Project Hope Floats is a non-profit organization with the sole purpose of saving the lives of newborn babies.
St. Andrew the Apostle is part of the network of "Safe Havens" throughout the state. A mother, without fear of judgement as criminally negligent, can choose to turn to us and leave her baby in safety rather than abandoning it to some unknown fate.
A 24 hour "Hot Line" is located in the northwest corner of the St. Andrew’s courtyard. "Missionaries" are needed to monitor the cellular phone that will ring if a mother activates the "hot line". A missionary will come to the church to receive the baby, take the baby for a medical check up, and contact Child Protective Services. Volunteers are requested to carry the phone for 7 days at a time.
Infant/child CPR required and provided. Please check out our procedures for more information about being a Project Hope Floats volunteer.
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Weekly Phone Monitoring
On Sunday, meet the previous week’s volunteer at a designed time and place to exchange phone, phone charger, diaper bag (contains blanket, wipes, first aid kit, diapers, clothing), and infant car seat.
During this exchange, please pick-up the hotline phone at the church to ensure that it is working, and that the cell phone rings. If there are any problems, please contact Laurie.
Diaper bag also contains the information sheet, and flyers to give to the parents.
- If you receive a call from St. Andrew’s hot line, the caller ID will show the number as 814-7867. We will be placing flyers in grocery stores and Fr. Joe has asked that the phone number for Project Hope Floats be placed on the flyers, so you may receive calls from other individuals.
- The phone needs to be on 24 hrs. a day. There is voice-mail recording on the phone. The phone indicates if a message has been left by an indicator on the display. Press the “talk” button to have it dial back to the voicemail.
- If you receive a call from someone wishing to leave a baby, acknowledge that they are at the church. Let them know how long you think it will take you to arrive at the church. DO NOT GO TO THE CHURCH ALONE. (Please note: When you come to the church, if the parent is not in the courtyard area, please walk the property to make sure that a baby wasn’t left in some other area.) Notify a church employee or volunteer coordinator immediately.
- Receiving the baby – when you receive the baby, if the baby is in distress, use the cell phone to dial 911 immediately. Otherwise, gather some information if the parent wishes to release it. The information we would like would be birth date, and any medical conditions. These are not required, but would be helpful.
Remember: It is critical that to avoid prosecution under the Safe Haven law the baby must be no more than 72 hrs. old.
- Take baby to the emergency room at either Chandler Hospital at 475 S. Dobson Rd (Frye and Dobson Rd) or Desert Samarian Hospital at 1400 S. Dobson Rd. (US 60 and Dobson Rd), and identify yourself at a volunteer receiving a newborn baby at a Project Hope Floats safe haven.
- Call Child Protection Services at 1-888-271-2445 and identify yourself at a volunteer with Project Hope Floats at St. Andrews Catholic Church and let them know you have just received a newborn baby and give the location of the hospital you are at with the baby. You may be listed as a contact person with CPS and may need to provide them a description of the parents. This is solely for their procedures for exhausting all means to identify the parents.
For more information, please contact Cathy Bergmann.