Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity Inc

Community Wisdom, Community Solutions.
CARE Centers are ‘centered’ in the community and led by community members. Proximate Leaders are SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS on the challenges facing their communities. Their solutions are often structured around insights only found through lived experiences. When given the opportunity to lead, Proximate Leaders are far more capable of finding sustainable solutions for their community of friends, love ones, and neighbors than any outreach effort from an outside organization. CARE is assisting these community leaders with the long awaited support they need through grants, legal assistance and augmentation of skills. Because of the generosity of donors like you, CARE is helping to start several New 501c3 Organizations or support existing ones. We know there is community wisdom and rather than work from the shelter down, CARE is working from the community Up. This methodology is Preventative and Sustainable.

CARE's Research and Development Team, in partnership with The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) College of Social Work, will be conducting a groundbreaking study to assess racial disparities in animal welfare organizations across the United States. The will result in a comprehensive report about how different policies and practices within the animal welfare industry in 4 communities contribute to disparate impacts felt by pet owners of different racial and ethnic groups. This report will help toinform discussions within the industryin their efforts to reduce disparities across racial and ethnic groups.

CARE seeks to analyze the economic impact of both the Animal Welfare and Pet Industry with the intention of measuring the field’s impact on BIPOC Americans. CARE is also interested in solutions like economic pathways into these industries for BIPOC Americans and their organizations.

Black Indigenous and People of Color [BIPOC] AND their pets are on the frontlines of Global Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Rising Sea Levels. Millions are paying a price for policies they have little control over. CARE is determined to advocate for people of color and their pets facing Environmental Injustice. Following CARE’s Human and Animal Well-being framework, we’ve begun implementing vital Environmental Justice and Policy work in Kentucky. Unlike other organizations working within the Environmental Justice space, CARE centralizes people and their pet family in the work we do. We look forward to gaining lessons from Kentucky that will insight future projects around the country.

REDI works outside the traditional framework of DE&I. Often DE&I is performative, done to look as though diversity is the goal. For this reason, DE&I initiatives seldom last long, rarely transfer power to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [BIPOC], or create systemic and equitable shifts within the organizations that innate them.

Thanks to Maddie’s Fund and Petsmart Charities, CARE is able to offer coursework that helps students look critically at our current and historical failures as it pertains to Racial Equity. CARE seeks to put committed organizations and individuals on a path to greater truth and understanding, and eventually to Action.

CARE’s Narrative Division produces stories that celebrate diverse companion humans and their pets. Take a look at the stories we tell, and re-tell. Stories shape our vision of the world and often frame our perceptions and biases. People of Color, People without homes, Seniors, and other marginalized groups do heroic things every day for animals but are rarely elevated or celebrated. CARE is broadening the narrative because the stories we tell matter in the battle to clear our shelters.