About Us

We Will Always be in the Fight to End HIV and to Provide the Best Care Possible to All Those Affected by HIV. That Will Never Change. Ever.

Who We Are

Our Vision

A generation free of HIV in the Sacramento region.

Our Mission

We carry out our vision by:

  • Promoting informed public policy to sustain a healthy community.
  • Supporting a compassionate community for people living with HIV.
  • Encouraging innovative prevention, education, and outreach programs.
  • Raising awareness to eliminate discrimination and stigma against those living with or at risk of contracting HIV.
  • Ensuring access to quality care.

CARES Foundation History

  • 1989
    The Center for AIDS Research, Education and Services (CARES) was founded in 1989 by community activists, Dignity Health, UC Davis Health System, Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Sacramento County in response to the devastating HIV epidemic.
  • 2008
    After two decades of providing care for their HIV patients, the Center for AIDS Research, Education, and Services opened their doors to everyone including the spouses, partners, friends, and children of their patients as part of their application to the federal government to become a Federally Qualified Health Center, thus changing their name to CARES Community Health.
  • 2011
    To be certain that funding would always be available for HIV care and prevention, CARES Community Health created the CARES Foundation. The Foundation was endowed with a substantial gift and becomes wholly separate from Cares Community Health.
  • 2012
    The CARES Foundation granted its first 5 grants to agencies in Sacramento.

Our Strategic Funding Priorities

IIn order to help determine how grant money is allocated by the Foundation, we have established the following set of strategic funding priorities:

1. HIV Prevention such as:

  • Outreach, Education and Engagement associated with risk reduction supply distribution
  • Outreach, Education and Engagement associated with Pre- and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP and PreP) and Treatment as Prevention (TaSP)

2. Filling Unreimbursed Gaps in Supportive services to keep People Living with HIV (PLWH) in care such as:

  • Substance Use Disorder Treatment
  • Transportation
  • Client Navigation
  • Case Management including benefits enrollment
  • Housing Assistance

3. HIV Testing with Linkage to Care such as:

  • Mobile Medical Care
  • Referrals to Care with Client Follow Up

4. Innovative projects that address the impact of HIV in the Sacramento region such as:

  • Pilot Projects
  • Provider Collaboration to increase service impact, continuity of care, and decrease service duplication

*The CARES Foundation will not fund goods or services reimbursable by third-party payors unless provided to patients without healthcare insurance that covers those services. The CARES Foundation will not provide grants or distributions to any foreign organization, political organizations or campaigns, or for any Sectarian purposes (i.e., programs that promote or require a religious doctrine.). The CARES Foundation will not provide goods, services or funds directly to individuals.

Board of Directors

Graciela Castillo-Krings
Lobbyist
Sacramento Advocates

Michael R. O. Martinez
Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner
California Department of Insurance

Dan Torres, J.D.
Chief Equity Officer
California Health and Human Services Agency

Ron Woo, C.P.A.
Retired

Jodi Nerell, LCSW, Director, External Affairs / Community Health, Mental Health & Addiction Services Sutter Health

Administrative Support

Debbie Bouzard – Consultant
Consultant to the CARES Foundation

Lili Carbone Joy, Owner, CEO, Community Health Impact (CHI), Grants Management Consultant, CARES Foundation

Frederick J.  Meyers, M.D., M.A.C.P. – President
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology
University of California, Davis (UCD) School of Medicine
UCD Health

Olivia Kasirye, M.D. – Vice President
Public Health Officer
Sacramento County

Alice Kessler, J.D. – Secretary
Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Robert Styron, M.B.A. – Treasurer
Financial Consultant, Healthcare

Ashley Brand
System Director for Community and Homeless Health
CommonSpirit Health

Erin Cabelera
Area Pharmacy Director
Kaiser Permanente – South Sacramento

A Broader Perspective

The HIV Epidemic

World AIDS Day takes place on December 1 of each year. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day. Since late 2019 when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began, the world again focused on public health, including the importance of prevention, treatment and healthcare access for all. The world often discusses twin epidemics: HIV and COVID-19. 

Well before and throughout  the challenging COVID times, the CARES Foundation has remained concerned and focused on the HIV epidemic which has infected over 88 million people worldwide, including over 42 million people who have lost their lives to illnesses related to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), the most advanced stage of HIV infection, through 2024. We are reminded that although the overall outcomes of the HIV epidemic have dramatically improved since the first case of AIDS became known in 1981, there is more work yet to be done.  

The successes in reducing HIV morbidity and mortality over the last 40 years have been made through the effective use of public health strategies and continual improvement of prevention and treatment practices, including timely access to care and powerful anti-viral drugs. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in California, between 2010 and 2021, deaths from HIV fell more than 30%.     Further, in Sacramento County, the overall number of new HIV infections per year decreased by 6.7% between 2012 and 2021, from 13.3 to 12.4 per 100,000. Despite this progress, disparities related to race, ethnicity, mode of HIV transmission and geography have persisted, which underscores the need for continued and broader adoption of effective prevention strategies such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), Treatment as Prevention (TaSP), and safe syringe distribution which are efforts targeted for higher risk, underserved, and vulnerable populations. More information can be found at www.HIV.gov.

These prevention and treatment strategies, combined with elimination of stigma and discrimination across all populations, are necessary to continue to reduce disparities in HIV morbidity and mortality related to race, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health. The CARES Foundation has provided grants and leadership to the Sacramento region for over a decade and will continue its efforts to implement and expand on local, state, and national strategies so that all members of our local communities can share in the broader successes of these public health measures.