Spectacular Magazine - April 2014 April 2014 | Page 31

HEALTH & BEAUTY
CAARE’s COMMUNITY
ENTREPRENEURIAL
OPPORTUNITY (CEO)
By Sharon Elliott-Bynum

RN, BSN, MA, PhD

Healing with CAARE has been
serving impoverished and
marginalized people primarily in Durham County. Ninety-three (93%) of
our service population is within 200% of the federal poverty line. Our
clients are adults aged 18 or over. 51% of our clients are male, 49%
are female. Some of our clients have physical or mental disabilities.
We serve disabled veterans, the elderly, individuals with health
and socioeconomic disparities. We have programs for those with
substance abuse treatment needs, mental health treatment needs,
homelessness and joblessness.
In total, through all of our programs, we serve thousands of people
annually, including 1400 in our free Medical and Dental clinics; 360 in
our substance abuse treatment program and mental health program;
12,000 through our food bank program; hundreds through HIV case
management, rapid re-housing, and/or Benefit bank. We have space to
provide transitional housing to 24 homeless veterans, on and off-site.
In addition, we touch thousands more through outreach--we test 3000
people for HIV every year, and do blood pressure, blood glucose, and
other screenings on many more at events at churches, community
centers, businesses and festivals.
Because of our highly integrated approach to service, a real
understanding of CAARE's components can best be achieved with
a site visit. Briefly, we focus on health and its social determinants.
Keystone programs are: 1) free medical and dental clinics for
uninsured patients; 2) wellness center, including fitness equipment
and classes; 3) holistic options, including massage and acupuncture
which show evidence of being effective for pain relief and for treating
PTSD; 4) case management including benefit banking; 5) HIV testing,
education, and case management; 6) rapid re-housing program and
a program providing transitional housing to homeless veterans; 7)
outreach and health promotion; 8) GED, JobLink, job training, and
entrepreneurial programs; 9) substance abuse treatment and mental
health therapies and 10) a food bank. All of our services are free to the
user. CAARE focuses on an holistic approach to meeting the needs of
our clients.
To that end CAARE is launching an innovative "business breeder"
supported entrepreneurship program in April 2014. The goals of the
program are: 1) to reduce unemployment, bringing marginalized
or hard-to-employ populations into the workforce in positions of
increasing responsibility and skill, and help people realize their full
potential and make positive contributions; 2) to create economic
stability and business ownership in marginalized communities and
dewcrease need for public spending and assistance; 3) to provide a
sustainable, replicable and scalable model for economic growth in
impoverished areas. Briefly, we would recruit un- or under-employed
people with barriers to employment, hire them (short term stipend),
and provide management, administration, marketing, sales, and
training support to them as we help them launch their own businesses.
Business plans would be carefully crafted to take advantage of local
needs and markets. During the program period, participants would be

cross-trained in all areas, mentored, and helped to build social capital.
Participants would repay direct program costs when/if they are able in
order to make the program sustainable.
We will also provide strategic assistance to existing 6 startups
which may have disproportionate positive impact in target
neighborhoods or with target populations. We will have an onsite
incubator and consultingservices available. It is named “CAARE’s
Community Entrepren