David’s Refuge is a community that supports and cares for parents/caregivers of children with special needs or a life threatening illness.  We are a community of compassion, understanding and inclusion. We are the community that comes alongside caregivers on their journey to offer encouragement, grace and strength. We live out our values with love, hope and joy. We are always excited to welcome new families to our community. We encourage you to explore all of our areas of caring (make “areas of caring” a link to that page) and engage in the ones that feel right for your family.

David’s Refuge offers two types of caregiving weekends

• Single Parent: if you are a single mom or dad we are so excited about our single parent weekends. They are customized specifically for amazing moms and dads like you. They offer a combination of time with other single parents as well as time on your own to relax and focus on you.
• Caregiving Couple: These weekends are designed to offer time to reconnect and focus on your relationship. They also offer the opportunity to connect with other caregiving couples.

A caregiving couple is a couple (married or not) that reside in the same home and both significantly care for the child with special needs or life threatening illness. 

After completing an application and sending in your supporting documentation, the David’s Refuge team will review and evaluate your information. We do our best to look at a combination of diagnosis, supports in place and the level of care being provided each day. 

We offer two-night getaway weekends, checking in Friday and checking out on Sunday.

You are welcome to reapply for weekends respite once each year. 

At most of our locations check-in time is 3:00 p.m. or after. Check-out time is usually 11:00 a.m.

Host mentors offer an opportunity for an ongoing relationship with a mentor who “gets it”. They have first-hand experience with the demands of caregiving as well as an understanding of need for respite and self-care.  These volunteers are there to support and encourage you throughout the year, facilitating meaningful connections and, most importantly, listening. These experiences have a profound and meaningful impact on parents, the way they see their life, and their ability to move forward from a place of strength.

David’s Refuge offers a non-program program. Our goal is to provide you an opportunity to unplug from life and take time to refresh and restore yourself. Our weekends are designed to care for parents in the best way we can. Each of our weekends offers a combination of time together to connect with other caregivers and time on your own. 

Accommodations on a David’s Refuge respite weekend are offered to qualified caregivers free of charge, expenses being underwritten by the generous support of donors. This covers the cost of your room, breakfast, a weekend stipend for meals or activities and several other amenities.

David’s Refuge partners with locations throughout Central New York, the Southern Tier and Western New York. Please follow this LINK to see a list of our locations.

Once you qualify you will receive our calendar link with our available dates and locations. You are free to choose any available opening on the calendar. If all of the weekends are full for the current year, you will be placed on the wait list for the following year. 

Cancellation Policy: If you have to cancel your weekend respite for any reason, David’s Refuge cannot guarantee an alternate date for you in this calendar year. You will be placed on our cancellation list. 

No. David’s Refuge weekends are designed for parents/guardians to get away and be recharged.

You will be responsible to find appropriate care for your children. Many of our guests utilize family members or friends; others find caregivers through schools and agencies they are connected to or by networking with other parents.

Yes. David’s Refuge will help offset the cost of caring for your child with special needs if needed through a generous grant from The Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation. Our respite reimbursement program is designed to help those that would otherwise be unable to pay for their respite care expenses. If you receive respite through an agency, those funds must be utilized before you apply for funding from David’s Refuge. David’s Refuge reimburses the respite provider directly. 

Some of our locations have pets. If you have allergies, please come prepared or choose a location that does not have pets.

Most B&B’s and Inns are not accessible. David’s Refuge does partner with several locations that are accessible. If you need an accessible room/location, please contact out office at 315.682.4204. 

Sorry, all of our locations are non-smoking buildings and properties.

The parent night out program is a once a year dinner program available for our David’s Refuge community. Go our to eat at your favorite restaurant and David’s Refuge will cover up to $50. 

David’s Refuge hosts a variety of event throughout the year, for parents and families, with our many wonderful partner! The event include: Valentine’s Date Night, Hop into Spring, Beauty of Mom, Dad’s BBQ, Summer Celebration, Halloween Parade, Cookies with Santa and more!  Please follow this link to our events page to find out more information and to register for any of our upcoming events. 

The Community Champion Grant is a program dedicated to supporting and revitalizing families within the special needs community. With this grant, community members will be given funding of $250-$500 to plan and execute an event or project for other special needs families in their community. Follow this Link to the application. 

You can remind them it is OK for them to have a break; it will make them a better parent.  You can offer to care for their children or pets while they are away.  You can send a donation to David’s Refuge to help cover the expense of the getaway.  You can help pay for their travel expenses if they are coming a long distance.

Please fill out our online application and send in your supporting documentation. Once eligibility is determined, we will contact you. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us at 315.682.4204 or info@davidsrefuge.org.

Please note that for Reimbursement Respite experiences, David’s Refuge is not responsible for your booking, reservation status or any cancellations/costs that occur due to cancellation. Your booking is at your own will, risk and discretion. We will only reimburse you for your one/two night stay. Please be cautious when booking and confirm that you are going through a reputable location.