SNP originated out of experiences that Director, Susan Belgard had with friends dealing with serious illness, including her close friend, Donna Solomon, who died of cancer a few years ago. Donna actively designed her own support team and quickly learned what kind of care she wanted and what she preferred to avoid. She taught her team, in the grace of her dying as she had in the gift of her life, what it meant to be a friend and how much a person could give, despite pain or other limitations. It is the hope of SNP that she serves as an inspiration to others in creating their own caring team.

SNP's Advisory Board includes a Harvard Business School Community Partner, a master-level business and personal coach, a hospice-trained massage therapist , a computer, database and web-site specialist, and the President of Partnerships for Change, (SNP's 501)(3) fiscal sponsor, augmented by volunteer consultants including a retired corporate manager and marketer and a graphics designer.

In addition to being an attorney, Susan is a personal and business "co-active coach"™ who elicits from the people she works with their resources, strengths, ideas and other assets in dealing with whatever issues they are addressing. The "co-active coaching" model is built on the premise that the person being coached has most of the answers and that the coach's role is to act as a facilitator, cheerleader, mentor, manager, sounding board and occasional taskmaster in helping him/her articulate them. This concept is particularly useful in encouraging people who are ill or infirm to be proactive, participatory and creative.