Compassions Training & Awareness Center

Compassions Training and Awareness Center teaches home care providers how to safely care for individuals with significant disabilities and teaches people with disabilities how to hire and train providers, advocate for their own needs, that in-turn will help prevent abuse and neglect for people who are vulnerable and at risk. If selected as a winner we would use the Elevate Prize funding to further our mission of advocacy and awareness providing individuals with disabilities opportunities and survival training skills, meeting efforts to unite with other communities that will  help further continue our mission to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities while they acquire the skills and mindset deemed necessary so that they can live, re-entering in a society where we are often judged or left out.  Living with a disability is not a ending but a new beginning, finding  their understanding into self-discovery and self-worth. to continue to have a positive impact, I would like to rebuild our website, create YouTube lessons; create online courses; create an online community and podcast create advocacy networks.....     

As a survivor of domestic violence that left me disabled and living in a nursing home for a few years, I went back to school re-educating myself, graduating with full honors before moving and living on my own, while attending OSU collage.  I learned first- hand the skills needed to live independently with a little help from skilled home health aides, as well as the prevalence of abuse and neglect. I am a disabled woman of color who has been judge and made to feel un-worthy but yet I remain strong, willing and focused. My vision is to take my personal life experiences and sacrifices to educate others who are disabled.  The purpose of my organization is to advocate, teach and train, caregivers how to safely provide specialized care for people with quadriplegia (spinal cord paralysis. My goal for the future is to give individuals with paralysis and other debilitating disabilities a voice by offering them real support, love and understanding while providing individuals with disabilities a preventative roadmap to survival, showing each person how to advocate for their health and wellness with learning preventive measures that can be utilize to train their caregivers and help prevent neglect and abusive care.   

Compassions Training and Awareness Center approaches professional caregiving from the lens of the consumer that requires professional care to live independently at home, which is innovative and disruptive. Typically, degreed executives run profit-based homecare agencies that pay caregivers extremely low wages, and do not provide adequate training. People needing home care are highly vulnerable to abuse because they must rely on caregivers for their most intimate personal care, so complaining can literally endanger their lives. Compassions provides highly specialized training for professional caregivers taught by someone who knows exactly what’s needed because she lives it everyday. This elevates and empowers everyone involved!  People that need safe professional care learn independent living and self-advocacy skills and have a larger pool of trained professional caregivers they can feel comfortable hiring. Professional caregivers learn valuable marketable skills, earn more income, achieve recognition, and improve their confidence and self-worth. Loved ones of the person receiving care have less anxiety because they know the person’s needs are being met safely. The entire community benefits from participation from more of its members who have been left out for far too long. Their voices will help find solutions to the until now taboo topic of rampant abuse.

I am approaching professional caregiving from the lens of the consumer. My approach elevates and empowers everyone-the person needing care as well as the professional caregiver who learns valuable marketable skills-the field at large improves when the specialized training is recognized. And the extended family also benefits knowing their loved ones are being safely cared for, while addressing issues of abuse and neglect. 

I have a long successful award winning history. Since 2006 to my current history I have received numerous awards, newspaper notoriety and featured on several of our city's news channel but yet finding so satisfaction due to my work is not done. My organization is having a impact on Humanity because I lead not only by experience but by example. Living with a disability is not a ending but a new beginning, finding  their understanding into self-discovery and self-worth. to continue to have a positive impact, I would like to rebuild our website, create YouTube lessons; create online courses; create an online community and podcast create advocacy networks..... Our longevity is due to our commitment, Compassions strives to elevate and empower some of the most diverse and marginalized voices in society and as we hear their stories and open our hearts to their experiences and gifts, we all benefit and are enriched by their participation in our communities. My continued commitment to the disabled community and will always be, At  Compassions we are working together as one to help one another.