CARIE’s Mission, Vision, and Values
Our Mission
To promote the well-being, rights, and autonomy of older adults through advocacy, education, and action.
Vision
As a leading advocate in aging, CARIE’s work advances the health, safety, and dignity of older adults from all socioeconomic, racial, and cultural backgrounds.
Values
CARIE’s Board and Staff are committed to upholding the following values:
To act with INTEGRITY
To work for social JUSTICE
To advocate for the EMPOWERMENT of the individual
To support SELF-DETERMINATION
To treat all individuals with RESPECT, COMPASSION, AND DIGNITY
CARIE’s Anti-Racism Position
As advocates for equal rights and justice for more than 43 years, we stand with those engaged in the fight against systemic racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Over the past months, as we have witnessed horrific examples of that racism, we have been listening and reflecting, considering how to provide a concrete, action-oriented meaningful, response. We affirm what is undeniable – Black Lives Matter.
Our work regularly brings us face-to-face with institutionalized racism, bias, and discrimination directed to older adults of color. Many have lived through a lifetime of deeply embedded structural discrimination in housing, employment, education, and lending, denied the right to own a home in a neighborhood with good schools, clean air and water, and access to healthy foods.
Data starkly highlights the impact of generations of racist policies. For example, by even the most conservative measures, older Black adults experience more than twice the rate of poverty as whites leading to a vast racial wealth gap among older adults. The median household wealth of older Black adults is just $55,000 compared to $280,900 for older white adults. To address this disparity in economic well-being, it is important that we explicitly identify the role structural racism and white misanthropy has played in creating that disparity. As we continue the work we do in behalf of some of society’s most vulnerable members, we pledge to do more to name and dismantle the institutionalized racism and white misanthropy that has brought us to this point.
We are aware that there is a direct connection between the two crises of our time, one old and one new. We are seeing shockingly high death rates due to COVID-19 among Black people. In Pennsylvania alone, we have watched as 69% of the deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in long-term care facilities; many of those deaths too were Black residents.
We know that as we work with other nonprofit organizations to address problems of racial prejudice within the broader society, we must get our own house in order as well. Fewer than 20% of nonprofits are led by persons of color. All leaders in the nonprofit sector need to work to change that equation. As an organization, CARIE will offer staff training and education aimed at leadership development in general but particularly for our staff of color, and culture change; we are re-evaluating our recruitment efforts; we have established the CARIE Anti-Racism Committee led by our staff of color; and we have hired an expert to help us look objectively at ways we use experience, influence, power, and privilege in our own lives and the lives of those around us.
We are taking deliberate steps to create an environment that fosters transparency, supports open communication, and ensures spaces and opportunities for all staff to feel safe and valued and to thrive. We will use our collective influence to instill anti-racism practices within the broader systems we engage including long-term care and healthcare systems, housing, criminal and civil justice, guardianship, transportation accessibility, and the broader aging system at the local, state and federal level. We hereby commit to bring resources, talent, and energy to the fight to end racism in all its forms and wherever it may live.
“I have recently spoken with people at similar agencies, NO ONE has been so prompt in returning my calls, as insightful about the issues, and as clear in making recommendations. I only wish I had known about CARIE months ago. Much time and anguish would have been prevented.”
Our aim is to continue to make sure that people know they can call us for help and avoid the anguish Mrs. Brown felt.
As we look to the future, there are many challenges. The safety net for older adults—one with flaws—is facing imminent threats. Our nation’s expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid (essential programs for the elderly) are “over the top.” We have recently heard that Social Security must change—a potential threat to generations ahead. As we see changes to respond to these problems—the system becomes even more difficult to understand. CARIE is there for older adults to help them understand and navigate this ever more difficult system of services, and to help make a system that is more responsive to the needs of those who use it.
