The Carolina Family Caring Initiative is a local grassroots program designed to bring information and services to the dedicated families who provide long-term care at home - through the support of caring citizens and firms. The Initiative will launch in the Upstate region of South Carolina in Fall 2004 and will migrate to other regions in the following months. We invite your participation.

Why support the Initiative?		How to support the program.
What does the program accomplish?		Benefits of Participation.

Family caregiving is one of the most significant -- yet hidden -- issues facing America’s communities today.

25% of all families in the Upstate are actively caring for a loved one who is frail and elderly, chronically ill or disabled. The financial and social impact of caregiving is taking a huge toll on area families, on employers and on our community. And the cost to our community will increase dramatically as America ages at an accelerating pace over the next 25 years.

Family caregivers take significant cost out of our healthcare system by shifting the burden onto themselves. In doing so, they improve the quality of life for many area citizens by caring for them in their own homes. Such care can include everything from feeding, bathing and toileting; to helping with the financial and administrative aspects of medical care. (See Facts about Caregiving.)

Caregivers average 18 hours a week caring for their loved one: the value of this work is estimated to be $257 billion per year nationally, more than nursing home and home care expenditures combined. A majority of these caregivers work, creating a productivity drain for employers, and stress for themselves.

Here’s What the Community Initiative Achieves

The Carolina Family Caring Initiative is an annual campaign to raise awareness and promote caregiving effectiveness among the community’s stakeholders, including care economy firms, healthcare providers, financial services firms, employers, and the community at large.

The result will be lower costs (for our families, employers and communities) and more effective outcomes for all involved.

Your sponsorship support provides for the materials, programs and workshops that make up this community effort. These elements include:

• The production and distribution of Family Care Passports through faith-based groups and other stakeholders to caregivers in need.
• A free First-Step consultation, connecting the caregiver with a telephone-based Care Advisor who has the training and experience to can help frame the issues and provide direction.
• A website with that provides easy access to forms, checklists and "how-to" resources that can make caregiving easier.
• Educational seminars for businesses, churches and other support organizations.
• Caregiver training workshops open to the community.
• A media campaign that promotes awareness of caregiving issues and solutions.
• An ongoing program to evaluate and provide additional benefits to caregivers including discounts on real estate, transportation and other services needed by caregivers.

Lower Costs, Better Outcomes

Not only is the cost to society reduced when caregivers are supported, families benefit substantially, regardless of the family’s socio-economic status. The message is clear: the more effective the caregiving, the lower the healthcare costs and the better the outcome.

The challenge is that no one prepares to be a family caregiver. Most families need help in understanding the issues and making caregiving decisions. Unfortunately, most of the trusted advisors to whom families turn for guidance are not adequately prepared to help either.

What Caregivers Need

• Information and access to services and resources.
• Understanding and cooperation from employers, family members, friends and neighbors, health care providers, health plan administrators, and even their own physicians.
• New skills - delicate communication skills, financial management skills, time management/organizational skills, even medical-technical skills.

Recognizing the important social and financial contributions caregivers make to the community, business leaders in Greenville, Spartanburg and throughout the Upstate want to lend a hand.

Here’s How Sponsors Benefit

The Carolina Family Caring Initiative is designed to help you do well by doing good. The Initiative will:

• Bring caregivers to you - physically & online - enabling you to reach this huge market more efficiently.
• Build awareness among other key leaders and influencers.
• Generate good will commensurate with the huge need caregivers have for community support.
• Make your firm a champion of this important community initiative.
• Assist caregiving employees with a program that helps them solve problems and find answers more efficiently. The result is a more productive workplace with higher morale.
• Strengthen the community’s economic base by providing needed assistance that will help families plan more effectively and mitigate the high physical, emotional and financial costs of caregiving.

Please review the Sponsorship Benefits for more details and then take your place on our Board of Advisors as a sponsor of the Initiative.

Contact us to schedule a meeting to discuss this vital community initiative. We look forward to working with you.