Health and Wellness

Compassionate Alliances for Resilience & Empowerment Program

The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago is offering a new evidence-based faculty peer support program – Compassionate Alliances for Resilience & Empowerment Program (We-CARE) – aimed at fostering well-being of our faculty and promoting belonging and inclusion. The We-CARE Program is adapted from a similar program developed at the Harvard University which has been disseminated in multiple academic medical centers across the nation. The We-CARE Program offers peer support and collegiality – it is not therapy. The program also connects faculty members with other organizational resources for further support.

The We-CARE Program utilizes trained faculty volunteers (We-CARE Helpers) to support peer faculty members in need of collegial support by providing empathic listening in a supportive environment. Faculty members will be able to confidentially share their concerns and dilemmas in a safe space with emotional support and validation without judgement or fear of retaliation. We-CARE Helpers represent the diversity of our College with respect to clinical/nonclinical appointments, rank, gender, and race/ethnicity. These are colleagues you can turn to when you need someone to talk about issues such as burnout, workplace conflicts, obstacles in career advancement, and challenges to maintaining work-life balance.

Questions? Reach us at wecare@uic.edu

Stephanie Joe, MD, FACS
Memoona Hasnain, MD, MHPE, PhD
We-CARE Co-Directors

Acknowledgements

 The We-CARE Program has been developed with generous advice by Dr. Jo Shapiro, MD, FACS from Harvard Medical School; and funding support from the Health Equity Pilot Project (HEPP) and UICOM Dean’s Office. We are grateful to the faculty who have volunteered to serve as We-CARE Helpers in this inaugural launch of the program.

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