History of SOS Health Care

SOS Health Care has been a grass roots campaign addressing the needs of the most vulnerable persons in Horry County for 19 years. Four of our programs have been spun off to become independent non-profits: CareTeam in 1998, SharedCare, Senior Peer Counseling, and the Children's Center of Cedar Branch in 2006.

With the establishment of the Children's Center in 2001, SOS decided to move toward ending repeated provision of necessities of life through our programs to the same families because we came to believe that it encouraged dependence rather than independence. For that reason, we no longer provide repetitive supplies of basic necessities and presents at holidays. This is why our Caring 4 Kids program has changed. All giving to families in need are now on an emergency basis only, usually one time, with steps taken to evaluate the reason for the unmet need along with the proposal (and oft times advocacy) for steps to avoid the recurrence of the same need. A hand-up rather than a hand-out is our goal.

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