It's all about C.A.R.E.
Thursday, September 10th 2009 @ 4:26 AM
WE C.A.R.E - Creating Alternative Resources for Education
Ben himself has made it very, very clear that trying to change the current system or "box" is not the answer to these issues. He has given the acronym of C.A.R.E. to reflect his message.
He says that for past many years our schools have been a Catch All Responsible for Educating our children.
Now our Communities Are Responsible for Educating our children and that this shift will occur as a result of Creating Alternative Resources for Educating our children within our communities.
My (Ben's) family suffered greatly as a result of a mental illness that was not supported by our community and society. Ben chose to take his life on April 16, 2009. To learn more about his story read the articles below. I have hundreds of stories from other families dealing with similar issues. As a teacher and healer, I had many alternative available to me, however:
We are a family with two self-employed adults earning a middle income. We pay our own medical insurance to the tune of 1700.00 per month and live paycheck to paycheck. We could not afford the many, many alternatives that were available to us because they were not covered by our insurance. The services we did have access to, the more mainstream, heavily medicated route were not working.
My child did not want to be viewed as different. He was already ostracized for his illness. He wanted to fit into mainstream. Anything alternative made him feel weird or broken. Therefore following Ben's suicide, we are proactive in creating alternative solutions that are inclusive.
