Link to the flyer used for advertising the club at the CUNY New York City of Technology: Carefam Brochure

Advertising video at the New York City College of Technology Club Fair

Carefam received support from the New York City College of Technology to create a Caregiver Support Group Club at their campus. Since it was during the pandemic, all sessions were done on the Zoom platform. We had 20 student caregivers, and we connected them with professional licensed caregivers from top non-profit organizations in NYC.

RESULTS OF OUR CAMPAIGN

HIGHLIGHTS

Participation in 4 entrepreneurship programs for feedback on our project in the past year
$3,500 USD received

NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) is a public-private partnership that helps develop scientific and engineering discoveries into useful technologies. The program connects academic researchers and students with the technological, entrepreneurial, and business communities at the local level through the work of I-Corps™ Sites. I-Corps™ Sites nurture and support multiple local teams transitioning their ideas, devices, processes, or other intellectual activities into the marketplace. The program’s goals are to spur the translation of research, encourage collaboration between academia and industry, and train students to understand innovation and entrepreneurship.

Outcome: Our business idea was awarded $2,500 for conducting over 50 in-person interviews with family caregivers.

CUNY-IBM Watson Social Impact Challenge is a semester-long experience designed to improve the academic achievement, and social engagement of the City University’s diverse student population through project-based learning focused on using applied IBM Watson AI technologies to solve social problems. The Social Impact Challenge prepares students for careers in the 21st Century economy.

Outcome: CUNY IBM Watson Social Impact Challenge, Among the top ten finalists, to pitch their business idea out of 500 other student business ideas.

Ideas 2 Impact is an entrepreneurship program that helps CUNY students go from idea to prototype (proof of concept). Once per year, 40 students from CUNY Schools are selected to participate in Ideas 2 Impact, a 9-week program focused on making the students’ ideas a reality. This program consists of both learning and doing. 3hrs per week is spent in classroom lectures and exercises, and 3hrs per week working with student team members and professional mentors.

Outcome: Pitch our idea in front of Professors and students with a total of 200 attendees—received valuable feedback from the audience.

The CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator helps entrepreneurs, CUNY students, faculty, staff, and the broader NYC community generate and scale ventures to create community well-being with sustainable environmental, social, and economic impact across multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Outcome: Our business idea won the audience award with more than 300 votes. For that reason, we won $1,000, which was later invested in self-learning and becoming certified Home Health Aide Caregivers.

We received communication support from:

Patricia Boyce – University Dean, Health Human Services, City University of New York : Conversation started for a small pilot test in CUNY colleges.
Alzheimer Association – For the potential to promote our platform on events and in person caregiving workshops.

CATEGORIES OF OUR BACKERS

	Why they should make the contribution	What we offer to them in exchange for their contributions	How they deliver their contribution
Corporates	Companies will have employees who will care for someone in need of extra assistance. Home care agencies need to keep their caretaker sharp, so they can receive the minimal complaints necessary from their clients. Home care agencies can hold up to more than 100 employees.	In return, their employees will have access to our platform, which offers caregiving short video courses that can help them in their care journey. We plan to add coaching services where they can get customized feedback on their care.	They will provide us with financial support. All their employees can access the Carefam courses, and we can create a private group for their organization.
Customers	Our target customers are overwhelmed and want resources to help them in their care. They are usually looking to join a support group or get advice from a professional, experienced, licensed caregiver. Community is a free service, we are only charging for the courses.	We offer a community where they can reach other caregivers and join support groups. Live caregiving courses where they can receive guidance from an experienced licensed caregiver.	The community service is free, and the courses available are more affordable than our competitors, for example, Careacademy. They will provide us with financial support.
Associations and Non-Profit Organizations	Their interest is to reach more of their target users. Different associations that focus on caregiving can use our platform for advertising their programs and increasing their users. They often desire to develop a reputation and contribute to a sustainable future for society. Many associations and non-profit organizations have thousands of members.	We offer them free access to create groups, events and allow them to be admins in the community. In addition, they can connect with our customers through our platforms and extend their networks.	Through a partnership, they can deliver free services to their target audience. They can also advertise events and programs that they may be offering. They will provide us with free advertisement.
Universities	Their interest is to increase the graduation rate of students. More students are taking on the caregiving role, which can cause a decrease in the graduation rate. This is a situation where universities may find our platform helpful in providing resources to reduce the strain of lack of knowledge. CUNY holds more than 270,000 students.	Students can have a discount upon using our services. This is useful because if their not caregivers, they can allow a friend or family member who is a caregiver to use our platform with our unique code for the free membership.	They will provide us with financial support. All their students can access the Carefam platform.