This year in honor of Juneteenth, we allowed our clinicians to choose where they wanted money donated on behalf of CARE Counseling. By the end of the week we donated over $3,000 to four charities – Women’s Advocates, Feed My Starving Children, HOPE Community, and CARE More.

While selecting which organizations to donate to, we got a chance to talk to some of the leaders of these organizations and hear about the importance of community donations as well as community support.

“Since our founding as the first domestic violence shelter in the country, Women’s Advocates has relied on donations from local small and large businesses to help provide safe shelter and housing to victim/survivors of domestic violence.” Jacob Hustedt from Women’s Advocates says. “The first house that we bought for our shelter was purchased from dollars raised through letter campaigns to local businesses.  Right now over 30% of our annual budget comes from community support. Contributions from local companies are key to helping us break the cycle of domestic violence.”

“Community is an essential part of Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). Community members generously give their time, money, and energy to help us feed starving children in desperate need around the world.”Says Jessie Morrell from FMSC. “Donations from businesses, churches, schools, foundations, and individuals in the community fund the meal ingredients. Co-workers, family, friends and strangers alike pack meals by hand to send to global distribution partners. FMSC welcomes all to pack meals and we feed all children regardless of background, religion or ethnicity.  Volunteering at FMSC is a time of sharing an experience and turning hunger into hope with your own two hands. FMSC is thankful to have a community that is so invested in feeding kids.” 

Here at CARE, we value a sense of community not only internally with our employees and team members, but also with the surrounding communities. Donating to these charities allows us to further our mission of, ”Building a community to strengthen the community.” But, also donating to charities that matter to our clinicians also allows us to support them on a personal level.