about us

In 1986 a demonstration grant was awarded to the Christian Service Center for Central Florida, Inc. as part of the State of Florida's newly created Alzheimer's Disease Initiative. The purpose was to provide respite care to families caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease or other types of dementia in hopes that respite would help delay nursing home placement. The Orlando project was one of only four in the State.  The model proved highly successful prompting the ADI to expand and fund respite in all areas of the state.

The Alzheimer's Respite Care Program (ARCP) of the Christian Service Center offered in-home respite provided by volunteers. As demand increased, and additional funding was realized, the program grew. Funding was secured from the Brookdale Foundation to set up a respite center in a local church that would be open one day per week. ARCP worked with a local hospital to offer overnight care one weekend each month. Eventually, services expanded to include five licensed adult day care centers each open five days per week, case management, short term overnight respite and crisis care for emergencies. Service area expanded to both Orange and Seminole Counties.

In 2001 the Alzheimer's Respite Care Program became the local provider for The National Family Caregiver Support Program of the Older American’s Act. This federal program provided the resources for ARCP to become Share the Care, widening the scope of services to include any family (not just Alzheimer’s) who is providing care for an elderly and/or disabled adult at home. Additional services were added and in December 2002, Share the Care became an independent, separately incorporated non-profit entity.  During this time Share the Care was recognized nationally as an innovative provider of Caregiver support.  The first Annual Caregiver Forum was held and continues to be offered every year to provide education and support to family caregivers.  Funders and partners included Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, AARP, Harry and Jeannette Wienberg Foundation, Florida Department of Elder Affairs, City of Orlando and Central Florida Foundation.

Share the Care continued to grow its mission in Central Florida by forging partnerships with local agencies and organizations. With funding from the WellMed Foundation, Share the Care, Catholic Charites of Orlando, and the Orlando Diocese teamed up to create a program to teach faith communities how to minister to caregivers within their congregations.  Funded by the Central Florida Foundation, Share the Care partners with Central Florida Community Arts and has developed a manual called 250 Days of the Arts in Adult Day Care. Developed and tested by Master artists the manual will be made available as a resource to Adult Day providers across the country.

Utilizing American Rescue Plan funding, Share the Care expanded its mental health counseling program into a full-blown Behavioral Health Initiative. A Chief Clinical Officer was hired to implement the program which now employs 10+ mental health counselors and serves over 100 family caregivers with one-on-one counseling in a telehealth format per week. Also offered are free weekly webinars for groups covering various caregiver appropriate topics.   Share the Care initiated a new in-home respite companion program. From humble beginnings, as the Alzheimer's Respite Care Program Share the Care has grown to provide 100s of thousands of units of service to over 1,400 families each year. The future will bring even more opportunities for Share the Care to expand and grow the mission based on the expressed needs of family caregivers.