Care & Consequences

This year, people in Binghamton, New York, can learn about the Care & Consequences project as they enjoy their morning Cheerios, thanks to a local dairy that plans to feature project information on the sides of its milk cartons. It's an unusual way to raise awareness of end-of-life issues, but the project organizers are delighted. They want to educate people whenever and wherever they can, including at the breakfast table.
Care & Consequences is reaching out to all sectors of the community in a campaign that talks about the medical, legal, financial, spiritual, and ethical issues involved in end-of-life decision-making and care. As a result, the project is turning out to be a bigger and better-funded effort than organizers ever imagined. Along with the milk carton campaign, the project is producing TV and radio broadcasts, holding town meetings, and planning a major distribution of print materials to help people understand the choices they face at the end of life.
From the outset, project partners WSKG Public Broadcasting, SUNY Health Sciences Center Binghamton Clinical Campus, the United Health Services Center for Healthy Aging and the Four County Library System worked to include institutions that could give the project broad access to the public and were trusted sources of information, such as local libraries and The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin, a daily newspaper. "These partners widened our outreach," says Juan Martinez, Community Relations Specialist at WSKG. "And the 53 libraries in the project region provide a lasting source of information on this issue."
Word about Care & Consequences quickly spread throughout the region, and project partners with new ideas came on board every week. Organizers immediately realized that they had many more ideas than they could handle in a one-year project.
As the project began to mushroom, fundraising became one of Care & Consequences' top priorities. "The more people became involved, the more opportunities we saw," says Cherie Morrison Davis, the key community organizer of the project. Partners worked together on how to approach potential funders and also collaborated on grant writing.
"Here we were, all nonprofits, sitting down to strategize for funding that wouldn't necessarily go to our own institutions," says Davis. "It worked because we all trusted each other, and we all were committed to the fact that this project doesn't belong to any one us, but to all of us."
National and local funding sources responded enthusiastically to Care & Consequences. They could see that the project wasn't going to duplicate efforts and had the potential to reach a tremendous number of people. Beginning with a $35,000 grant from Sound Partners, Care & Consequences has been successful in leveraging a $12,852 grant from the Rural Health Network of South Central New York, a $20,000 grant from The Pew Center for Civic Journalism and a $92,000, two-year grant from the Hoyt Foundation.
Care & Consequences now includes project partners from 19 counties in New York and Pennsylvania. Partners range from major medical schools to small, rural agencies on aging. Instead of being a one-year effort as originally planned, the project will span three years. Upcoming project activities include working with the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin on stories and inserts to educate the public as well as setting up more town meetings in the region. Working within the large group involved with Care & Consequences has energized project leaders like Davis. "I think the project's biggest success is seeing the power of synergy," she says. "By working together, we can see how much we have gained, and we'll go on to approach other issues in our community the same way."
For more information, contact Tracie Conklin at (607) 763-5804 or Juan Martinez, WSKG, at (607) 729-0100, ext. 352.