In 2008, Michelle Javian lost her father to heart disease. For two years while she was by her father’s side at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Michelle witnessed firsthand the lack of refuge and community support for heart patients and their families.
Around the same time, Yuki Kotani’s father was in the same hospital, under the same surgeon, awaiting a heart transplant after years of battling heart disease. Michelle approached Yuki with the idea to create a charity to help these families.
On April 10, 2009, the 1 year anniversary of Michelle’s father’s passing, Harboring Hearts received notice of their official 501(c)(3).
We provide emergency housing, transportation, food, and emotional support programming to cardiac surgery and transplant patients and their families.
Harboring Hearts has helped 8,000 patients across our Community Events with direct impact on more than 3,000 patients via our largest program, our Emergency Fund.
We work alongside more than 200 partnering physicians and social workers across 9 partner hospitals: New-York Presbyterian Columbia, New-York Presbyterian Cornell, Montefiore, Mount Sinai, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, North Shore University Hospital, NYU Langone Health, Westchester Medical Center, and Stony Brook University Hospital.
