The CVS Caremark All Kids Can program – a five-year, $25 million commitment of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and CVS Caremark Corp. to supporting children with disabilities – is about inclusion, acceptance and letting kids be kids.
“It’s designed for all kids,” said Eileen Howard Dunn, CVS Caremark vice president of community relations.
“We’re not making a distinction whether a child is disabled or not, whether they have Asperger’s or they’re in a wheelchair,” she said. “Their role in life is to be a child, and the goal of all of this is to really provide them the opportunity to be a child.”
In search of a signature cause for philanthropic efforts, the company wanted to engage its 190,000 employees in 42 states (including 6,000 in Rhode Island) and make an impact, Howard Dunn said. “We knew we wanted to work with children and focus on the health side of things to the extent we could,” she said.
Two years of research, including interviews with customers, employees and nonprofits, led CVS Caremark to launch the All Kids Can program in March 2006. The program focuses on three main components: learn, play and succeed.
The “learn” element creates awareness of the needs of children with disabilities and promotes the use of adaptive technologies, Howard Dunn said. It also communicates the value and importance of inclusion, according to the program Web site, www.cvsallkidscan.com.
The “play” component encourages all children to play and be physically active. “We want to give all children the opportunity, whether they’re in a wheelchair or walker or not,” Howard Dunn said. “We want the child in the wheelchair to get to the top of the play structure. At some playgrounds, they can’t even get through the gate.”
The “succeed” element provides children the opportunity to succeed at every level, she said. This component also involves support for “medical rehabilitation and related services for children with disabilities to organizations that provide much-needed services,” the Web site states.
Last year, the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust allocated $1.5 million in support of nonprofits in Rhode Island. The program’s main partners are Easter Seals, Boundless Playgrounds and Meeting Street. The 2007 Providence Easter Seals Walk With Me event raised $50,000 for individuals with special needs. More than 256 CVS Caremark associates participated, up from 183 in 2006.
Howard Dunn noted that All Kids Can really puts the company in the community.
“All Kids Can doesn’t live in our headquarters in Woonsocket,” Howard Dunn said. “It lives in our local stores and local markets.”
The CVS Caremark Charity Classic awarded a $125,000 grant to support a makeover of the Barrington’s Kids’ Kove Playground, redesigned with the help of associates last month “to allow children of all abilities to be able to play side by side.”
All Kids Can is also supporting the Roger Williams Park Zoo with a $500,000 grant to build a “Treehouse for All” – a universally accessible tree house with a “Swiss Family Robinson sort of look” to be enjoyed by all visitors, Howard Dunn said.
“We support these programs through donations and time spent there,” she said. “We don’t just give dollars. We help them be the very best that they can be.”
When the five-year funding cycle ends in 2011, Howard Dunn said, All Kids Can will likely have enough momentum to push forward, finding new initiatives and making connections.
“This is not an easy issue for a child or their family,” she said. “To the extent that we can find new ways to help the family and the child to make their lives easier, then we’ll do it.” •
