CARES (Community AIDS Resource and Education Services) has gone through a rebrand which includes a new mission, website, name change and look. CARES will now be known as Cares Sexual Wellness Services. “As an agency we have evolved to provide broader sexual wellness services to the community through STI and HIV testing and healthcare services for the LGBTQ community. We thought it was important that we have a name and mission that encompasses that.” reports CEO Kelly Doyle
CARES was founded in 1985 and supports 10 counties in Michigan with offices in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor. CARES was originally created by a group of volunteers who saw their friends dying and wanted to respond with help and compassion. The original mission is to maximize the quality of life for people living with HIV and to minimize the transmission of the disease. And while we never turn away from that work, Cares Sexual Wellness Services focuses on a new mission of providing comprehensive sexual wellness services where all participants-feel welcome, well-informed, cared for, and loved. And a vision of a community made up of individuals, regardless of status, position, or background that are empowered to navigate their own sexual health and wellness without shame, stigma or judgement.
The Cares board and staff has expressed enthusiasm and readiness. Cares will be expanding to provide LGBTQ health and wellness clinical services when we launch our medical clinic this fall. We are creating a bigger umbrella in which we create a greater amount of services to the community and allow for more access to those living with HIV to our building and our programs. In order to reach a larger high-risk community for HIV/STI, Cares sees the next step in our evolution is one that we become an agency that provides LGBTQ Sexual Health and Wellness Services.
Cares Sexual Wellness Services goal is to creating a comprehensive, one-stop shop that provides whole-person, culturally-competent services.
Clayton Dusendang of Studio Dusendang talks about his intentions with creating the new logo. “The Cares Sexual Wellness Services logo represents caring conversations to improve and sustain public health. Sexual wellness is community wellness. The modern speech bubble symbolizes the nature of sexual wellness in the digital age.”
For more information, please check out our new website at www.caresswm.org or contact Kelly Doyle at 269-806-3970 or kdoyle@caresswm.org
If you are interested in Studio Dusendang, please contact Clayton Dusendang by email at c@dusendang.com