SUPPORTWORKS®
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INFORMATION ON SUPPORTWORKS
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Who and what
is SupportWorks?


SupportWorks helps people find and form support groups and research medical information.  It primarily serves folks in its hometown (Charlotte, NC), although people across the USA use its telephone support group program and organizational assistance services. It is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, all-volunteer organization founded in 1989 to help people empower themselves through sharing solutions to common problems with others ("self-help") and by locating useful information (for medical and other issues).
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  • Access to support group data
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      We help people find any of about 220 support groups in Mecklenburg County, and about 800 nationwide.  This service is available at this website or by calling SupportWorks at 704/331-9500.  Helpful volunteers answer this line to provide personal assistance on Monday through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern time; at other times Sophie (our automated voice information system) provides callers with information about Mecklenburg County groups only.  Of course, you can find this information on this web site as well by going to the home page.
  • Help in starting support groups
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      SupportWorks development staff has 20 years experience in helping people put together a wide variety of support groups in an efficient, enjoyable manner.  Our philosophy is that starting a group should be fun and supportive, not exhausting and annoying.  Individual consultation is available at no cost; some of our publications are free and a few cost $3. For more details, click here to see our web page on starting groups. 
  • Consultation for existing support groups
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      SupportWorks' development staff also helps existing groups solve problems such as decreasing attendance, loss of meeting space, conflicts within the group, etc. Consultation is free.
  • Access to medical information
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      SupportWorks works in a coalition for callers within Mecklenburg County to help them research basic and useful information on any medical topic.  We can also help callers locate other people with the same disorder.  This research is done using a wide variety of printed and electronic resources. Click here to find a limited amount of basic information on this web site. 
  • Telephone conference support group meetings
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      SupportWorks no longer provides hardware access to those wishing to have conference meetings, but can provide assistance in finding low cost conferences and methods of making meetings effective and enjoyable.  Click here to learn more or call SupportWorks at 704/377-2055 and ask for Joal.
  • Workshops
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      SupportWorks provides a wide variety of workshops on topics such as starting new groups, increasing attendance, increasing member participation, working well with professionals, etc. 
  • Publications
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      SupportWorks publishes various materials relating to self-help.  Here are a few of the more popular ones:

      "Power Tools: Ways to Build a Self-Help Group" by Joal Fischer is an 8 page booklet covering the A-Z of putting together an effective support group.  It was used as the topic brochure at the 1992 International Self-Help Conference in Ottawa in 1992.  It is only $3 for the first copy and $1 for each additional copy.  It is available by sending a check to SupportWorks, 500 East Morehead Street, Suite 222, Charlotte, NC 28202.

      "The SupportWorks Cancer Resource Guide" is a resource guide outlining a wide variety of resources for people and their families affected by cancer.  About 75% of the resources are in Mecklenburg County and the remainder are national.  Thanks to grants and gifts, it is available at no cost.   We are currently updating our older edition which you may see by clicking here ; no printed version is planned at this time. 

  • Formation of coalitions
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      SupportWorks believes that no one community organization can do everything so it is important for organizations to work together.  With that in mind, the staff at SupportWorks enjoy working closely with folks at other organizations locally or nationally.
Who is SupportWorks?

SupportWorks is run entirely by a group of volunteers who are dedicated to the concepts of empowerment and the idea of enjoying themselves.  The organization runs because of their commitment and talents.

This site was designed by and is maintained by Joal Fischer at SupportWorks with major design assistance from Bryan Alsop and Michael Blackwell.  Valuable suggestions and help also came from Darlene Byrd, Deborah Michael Langsam, Susan Land, Jon Levin of Project ASSIST, Cassandra Mae, Wendy Morton, Tom Phillipp, Jim Stikeleather of Providence Technologies, Sharon Stone,  Eric Wells, the never-dozing telephone reference staff at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library, and the unbeatable technical support staff at MindSpring.  Our mascot is Bagel (woof-woof).

Who funds SupportWorks?

SupportWorks has received grants and is supported by the generosity of hundreds of individuals as well as the following organizations: AT&T, Adobe Systems, Aldus, American Academy of Family Physicians (Mecklenburg County chapter), Belk Brothers, BellSouth, Big Sky Bread Company, Breast Cancer Detection Center, Central Carolina Bank, Charter Pines Behavioral Health System, Corel Systems, Dillard Paper Company, Harris Teeter, Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Lanier, Lucent Technologies, MARC, Inc., MCI Telecommunications, Mecklenburg County Medical Society, Microsoft, Myers Park Methodist Church, The Nalle Clinic, The Nalle Clinic Foundation, Print Positive, Universal Press Syndicate, Universal Phone Systems, Washburn Graphics, and Westar Computers.  In addition, profits from sales of boxes of candy from Barking Dog Chocolatiers at Bonterra Restaurant are donated to SupportWorks.  Click here to learn more about Barking Dog Chocolatiers.

How can I volunteer?

It's simple.  Just give SupportWorks a call at 377-2055 and ask for Joal. 
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How does this site comply with the HONcode rules of conduct on the web?

To make it simple for you to understand how we comply with the HONcode rules of conduct, we list their principles here with a brief explanation.
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1.  Statement of authority:  No medical advice is given on this site. 

2.  Complementarity:  The information on this site is meant to help people learn to cope and solve medical problems.  This empowerment principle does not supplant any relationship with any medical professional. 

3.  Confidentiality:  All e-mail contact is handled with complete confidentiality and in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina, USA. 

4.  Attribution:  Whenever information is presented here which is written by, or belongs to another source, a clear attribution is given.  Dates of update are noted with all external links along with the last date of overall link checking (see the bottom of the home page).   We also include the date of update of each support group for which we publish a schedule; since those schedules are provided by the groups themselves, we always provide a phone number to call the first time one attends a group meeting.   However, we do not include the exact date of update of each support group to avoid the incorrect implication that a recent update is still correct;  instead, we provide phone numbers for users to confirm accuracy of the data. 

5.  Justifiability:  We do not recommend or endorse any commercial product or service. 

6.  Transparency of authorship:  Unless otherwise indicated, material is written by our webmaster.  Evaluation of other external sites is completed by webmaster Joal Fischer, MD and Deborah Langsam, PhD along with the assistance of the the staff at the Health Library of Presbyterian Hospital-Matthews.  Their chief librarian is Darlene Byrd. 

7.  Sponsorship:  We do not accept advertising on our site.  A list of sponsors of SupportWorks is included above; none of these sponsors has any control over content of this site or of the internal workings of SupportWorks. 

8.  Honesty in advertising:  As stated in the paragraph 7, we do not accept advertising. 
 
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