Beginnings
Originally a project of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, CARIE began in 1977 as a coalition of individuals and groups concerned about quality of care for frail elders and became a 501(c)(3) organization in 1979. As soon as our telephone number was published we began receiving calls from elders, caregivers and professionals regarding long term care, elder abuse, access to benefits and services, and many other concerns. Our helpline continues to be a core CARIE service, retaining our original focus on providing holistic assistance to individual older adults and those who care about and for them.
Expanding Assistance to Older Adults and Caregivers
Through the years CARIE has grown to encompass our current array of programs and services. Since 1981 we have provided Long Term Ombudsman (LTCO) services in Philadelphia. Our Elder Victims Emergency Security Fund has operated since 1988, arranges and pays for emergency repairs to the homes of elder Philadelphia victims of crime and abuse to prevent re-victimization. In 1998 CARIE was selected to implement one of seven federally-funded SMP pilot projects. The SMP is now in every state and continues to be managed by CARIE in PA. Since 2000 CARIE has provided advocacy and assistance to elder Philadelphia victims of crime and abuse. In 2022, CARIE was selected to provide LTCO services throughout Montgomery County in addition to Philadelphia.
Policy Advocacy
From its beginnings, CARIE has impacted the development of state and national policy affecting older adults through participation in government advisory groups, testimony before legislative and regulatory bodies, working collaboratively with community partners and developing papers on targeted issues including the first statewide study of guardianship practices in Pennsylvania and a 2022 paper on racial disparities in the quality of long term care (www.carie.org/policy). We have led major collaborative and multi-stakeholder projects.
Awards and Recognitions
CARIE’s achievements and leadership have been recognized by prominent local, state and national
organizations. In 1999 CARIE received the SmithKline Beecham Community Health Impact Award. That
same year CARIE also received the Governor’s Silver and Gold Award for Enhancing the Image of Older
Persons. In the fall of 2004, CARIE was recognized by Citizens Bank and NBC 10 as their “Community
Champion” for the Elderly, the first of these quarterly awards to be approved unanimously. In March of
2005, CARIE was again selected to receive the Community Health Impact Award presented by
SmithKline. CARIE’s professional training curriculum, Competence With Compassion™: An Abuse
Prevention Training Program for Long Term Care Staff, has been honored by the American Society on
Aging and the Brookdale Center on Aging with a Best Practices award and by the American Public Health
Association’s Archstone Foundation Award for Excellence in Program Innovation. In 2018 CARIE was the
recipient of a Barra Award and was chosen to receive an Impact100 Philadelphia grant.
