Care Resource

Rooted in the 1998 merger of Health Crisis Network (1983) and Community Research Initiative (1989), Care Resource is now South Florida’s oldest and largest HIV/AIDS service organization and a true leader in the community. We have also become since 2009 a Federally Qualified Health Center with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Miami-Dade and Miami-Beach, offering general primary care services to the whole South Florida community.

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in South Florida and for more than 30 years, Care Resource has been dedicated to serving those suffering with or affected by HIV/AIDS and to meeting the changing demographics of the epidemic. The former Health Crisis Network (HCN), founded in 1983 by a group of dedicated volunteers, focused on providing a response to the epidemic with crisis intervention, social support and educational programs. Community Research Initiative (CRI), founded in 1989, pioneered the implementation of community-based clinical trials through its network of physicians across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Virtually all of the popular anti-retroviral drugs widely used today have been studied by the agency through its clinical research program.

Since merging, the agency has expanded and new services have been added in response to the needs of the epidemic. In 1999 primary medical care was implemented, creating a system to rapidly and effectively triage those identified as HIV positive into a comprehensive system for medical care and supportive services. Today, clients have access at a “one-stop” location to primary medical care, information and referrals, case management, mental health and substance abuse counseling, transportation vouchers, HIV counseling and testing and wellness screenings.

Furthermore, the agency’s many prevention and education programs go out into the community and engage populations at high risk, affected and/or infected by HIV/AIDS, by disseminating prevention information and connecting those in need to the healthcare system. Prevention programs target youth, men who have sex with men, the incarcerated, African-American, Haitian, and Hispanic men and women believed to be HIV positive or at risk of contracting the virus.