Increase Awareness
Healthier Boynton Beach promotes regular outreach/training programs and awareness campaigns, recognizes caregivers and conducts assessments to help caregivers self-identify.

Increase Education
Healthier Boynton Beach advocates for the statewide adoption of the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, identifies services, supports and resources and circulates information to caregivers.

Improve Health and Wellness
Sometimes, a caregiver’s own health gets overlooked. Healthier Boynton Beach helps to identify, coordinate and connect health and wellness services to caregivers.

• It took time for the initiative to the find the right fit for the project director position. Yet, when the project director was selected, who had a combination of network and executive level leadership qualities, the initiative thrived.
• Healthier Boynton Beach has created a number of engagement and participation channels which consistently attracts people. These offerings include an annual family caregiving luncheon, mini-grant opportunities, quarterly feedback loops and a very active family caregiver club. As a result, the initiative is excelling at weaving together a community of support for caregivers and their families based on relationships and social connectedness.
• In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthier Boynton Beach networks have easily pivoted to be responsive to caregivers and communities’ needs. Their quick adaptations enabled them to link people with resources and to support community-led solutions naturally emerging in their neighborhoods.

First Steps 
Healthier Boynton Beach launched within a community that had deeply committed organizational partners willing to explore a new approach to addressing a challenging health-related topic. The community rallied around the sentiment that everything begins with the family. Thus, family caregiving was selected.

Where The Foundation Stumbled 
The steering committee hired two project directors before finding the right fit for the role. Throughout the highs and lows related to the position, the steering committee held steadfast, committed in their vision for a supportive community for caregivers. Relationships and conviction for the work were deepened as a result.

Where The Foundation Thrived 
Healthier Boynton Beach has attracted leading organizational partners who are trusted entities in the community and leading experts in caregiving, including churches, the Area Agency on Aging and American Association for Caregiving Youth. Current and former family caregivers are giving of their time and talents to advance the initiative’s mission, and the fiscal agent has seamlessly adopted the vision of the initiative and leveraged resources to advance the work.

The Tipping Point 
When the current project director, Ricky Petty, was chosen, he and the close-knit steering committee created a very safe and trusting environment, which was so critical when difficult conversations arose. Those difficult conversations were handled in a way where people were heard, their life experiences were honored and learning took place.