The CAHEC Foundation improves the quality of life for youth and young adults through wellness and education. In 2021, we distributed $242,000 to support our mission of offering life-changing opportunities to the residents in CAHEC's footprint. Here's an overview of the initiatives we proudly supported:

CAHEC Foundation Donates $40,000 to Three Local Organizations

Last year, as a result of the pandemic, the CAHEC Foundation began exploring partnerships that could help residents navigate the new world we were living in. Our outreach began by supporting virtual learning academies and food banks, two things that were extremely beneficial to working families who may have been impacted by COVID. As we spoke with partners and residents throughout the year, we quickly learned how important it was to shift our focus to supporting initiatives beyond our normal scope.

The Foundation of Hope believes that research is the hope for the millions of individuals struggling with mental illnesses around the world. Locally, they help fund the UNC Psychiatry Pediatric Behavior Clinic (PBC), which supports treatment programs for children and youth in need of mental health care. The best part: most services are offered at no cost to families. The clinic staff (who are mostly volunteers) recognizes the importance of family, school, and community, and they provide professional assessments that address each child's emotional, physical, intellectual, cultural, and social needs. In addition to providing services in-house, they collaborate with community providers to ensure families have access to additional resources if needed. We were humbled to learn about all they are doing to help youth residents in our community and jumped at the chance to be a supporter of this clinic.

Another organization doing incredible work in the Triangle is the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI provides support, education, and advocacy to those facing mental health challenges - for free. It's no surprise that the pandemic has exacerbated the existing mental health crisis in the country, and NAMI is working hard to empower those they serve with the tools needed to sustain and support mental wellness. Although they typically host courses in person, they switched to a virtual setting during the pandemic and expanded their reach to surrounding counties as well. One of their most popular programs, Supporting Mental Wellness, includes 6-8 educational courses, including topics that cover basics for parents of youth facing a mental health crisis, mental health first aid, art therapy, and self-affirmation. We appreciate all that NAMI-Wake does to advocate and educate families on this important issue.

Beyond mental health, the CAHEC Foundation also recognized how many women were impacted by the pandemic over the last two years. Between February and April of 2020, over 22 million Americans had lost their jobs, and in April alone, women made up 55% of job losses. One in ten working moms with young children quit their job (mainly because of school closures) and have yet to return to the workforce. Dress for Success is an organization that is striving to help women return to the workforce by offering career and image coaching, job acquisition classes, career development workshops, and skill-building webinars. In 2021, they went virtual and still provided over 650 career coaching sessions, 750 mock interviews, and connected over 850 women to job fairs. We are happy to support their efforts in getting women back into the workforce! As we move into 2022, we'll be using various resources from each of these organizations and distributing them with our network. Stay tuned for some great opportunities ahead for your residents!

Amazon Smile

Don't forget: If you're a big Amazon shopper, you can support the CAHEC Foundation by shopping on AmazonSmile! Use this link to set the CAHEC Foundation as your charity of choice, and Amazon will donate .5% of the price of eligible purchases to the organization you've selected. Thank you for supporting us while you shop!

For more information regarding the wellness and education initiatives offered by the CAHEC Foundation, or to make a donation, please contact Stefanie Lee at (919) 645-9825 or slee@cahec.com.