Flagler Cares Reaches 10 Years of Serving the Community

A very different environment led Barbara Revels to prompt the creation of Flagler Cares ten years ago, when she was a Flagler County commissioner. The Great Recession’s hardships were lingering for local residents, not just from a crush of foreclosures. County government’s ability to connect residents to social services they needed was limited. “Things were pretty tight in our community,” Revels recalled. “We would meet as an executive group, and just spin ideas. And then finally, the hospital came up with some very tiny seed funding to help us try to seek out grants.” With its first tentpole community benefactor supplying $25,000, the pieces were in place to grow a vital and thriving community nonprofit. These days Revels serves as vice president on Flagler Cares’ board of directors. It’s never stopped being a part of her life. Working Behind an Effectual Leader One of the most crucial figures in converting on the ambitions of Flagler Cares has been Carrie Baird, the organization’s CEO. Along with Chief Clinical Officer Jeannette Simmons, Chief Operating Officer Rachael Gerow, and Chief Community Impact Officer Kristy Amburgey, Baird’s organizational expertise has helped maintain funding and operations to ensure a smooth pipeline between residents in need and their applicable care. Her experience dates back to 1993, with 27 of those years serving the Flagler/Volusia area. “I was asked to come in as a consultant and work with the original group of leaders to help them develop a strategic plan for what they wanted to do moving forward,” Baird said. “It has grown significantly. We formed the nonprofit in June 2015 and it was just me as the contractor for, I think, probably at least the first couple years. Now we have seventeen employees.” Today, Flagler Cares offers assistance with a variety of social and medical resources. The organization’s website names Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORe), behavioral/mental health, benefit assistance and navigation, screenings and referrals, assistance with identification, health insurance marketplace navigation, and assistance with disability as the key tenets of its services. A Vision Becomes a Reality AdventHealth Palm Coast–at the time known as Florida Hospital Flagler, on whose board Revels served until last year–was one of a few groups in Flagler County that took an early interest in Flagler Cares. Revels also recalled the involvement of the Florida Department of Health Flagler, Flagler County Free Clinic, Flagler Schools, and the Sheriff’s Office. But the role of the region’s medical providers in those beginning stages was essential.  “People who are decently well off who have health insurance, have stable jobs, and stable families and stable housing…medical care can be challenging for them just in terms of getting the right providers and follow-through and things like that. But when you don’t have those ingredients or those things going for you, medical care becomes almost impossible,” said Dr. Stephen Bickel. A longtime healthcare provider and champion of accessible care in Flagler County, Dr. Bickel was also an early organizer of Flagler Cares. He was also one of their most consequential benefactors. In 2022 he pledged $10 million to Flagler Cares over ten years, a figure which has been reduced somewhat after Bickel relocated to Memphis and thus has less hands-on involvement.  Funding a Machine for Good According to Baird, annual meetings with Bickel are in place to determine the status and usage of his investments. Those meetings are scheduled through FY 2026-27. While no hard contract is in place, both parties share the same enthusiasm about the good that has and will come from their collaboration. Bickel’s contributions over the years have allowed Flagler Cares to build employment infrastructure and match other outside funding sources, Baird said. As of 2025, Flagler Cares has 17 full-time employees. Their budget for FY 2024-25 was $2,589,000, underscoring the impact of large-scale donations such as the ones made over the years by Dr. Bickel and the hospital. Easing the Burden on Medical Providers “I just see the ramifications of people not being able to get medical care, and the toll it took on their bodies and their lives,” Bickel said. “For this group of people that started struggling financially with the things that most of the middle class is used to…it’s just vital. Otherwise they mostly don’t get medical care and suffer the consequences.” According to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, between ten and 13 percent of Flagler County residents below the Medicare eligibility age of 65 were uninsured as of 2022. This puts Flagler just above the national average (11% versus 10%), though Flagler’s number has dropped 4% since 2015. Back then, it had been consistently 5% to 6% higher than the national figure for the better part of a decade. Also affecting Flagler is the quantity of providers relative to its population. Further data from the University of Wisconsin places Flagler County’s ratio of patients to primary care physicians at 1,890 to 1 as of 2021. A 2012 analysis by the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Family Medicine placed the ideal ratio (or panel size) within a range of 1,397 to 1,947 per primary care provider as formed through multiple estimates. Another report by the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine speculated that if physicians cared for what they called the ‘standard patient panel size’ of 2,500 patients, they’d have to work 21.7 hours per day in order to properly care for each patient. Flagler Cares’ office in City Marketplace offers services available nowhere else in the county. Behavioral Health Program Supervisor Tamira Alston provides free mental health counseling to those without health insurance, and Flagler County Community Paramedicine keeps those in opioid recovery medicated during the interim period as they wait for an appointment. The facility also includes the only play therapy space in the county, giving mental health partners a space to conduct specialized therapy with children that would otherwise be a lengthy drive away. The avenue to these services through Flagler Cares is one crucial avenue in assisting primary care physicians in shouldering the needs of the region. Achievements in Service Carrie Baird outlined some of the key achievements and milestones in Flagler Cares’ development in a presentation to the Palm Coast City Council on June 3rd. The first major step after the creation of Flagler Cares, Inc. came in 2018, when direct service to clients was established. A partnership was formed the following year with One Voice for Volusia, who ultimately merged with Flagler Cares in July 2024. The Flagler County Village location was established in 2021, at a key moment when the community was still rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic. Then in 2022 the Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORe) initiative began. Also highlighted by Baird was the figure of 789 individuals who requested help in FY 2024-25 with a client success rate of 78.5%. One individual spoke privately of his experience reaching out to Flagler Cares for an ailment which consistently eluded definitive diagnosis. He recalled the feedback and direction he received in 2023 leading him to find Mayo Clinic specialists who’ve helped him make strides in managing his disease. The Future of Flagler Cares As Flagler County’s population consistently experiences fast-paced growth, the ability of groups like Flagler Cares to keep up will be pivotal to maintaining a healthy community. The more populated an area becomes, the higher the strain on organizations who strive to provide a personal touch in serving residents. As such, the ability to stay as finely-tailored as Flagler Cares will require proportional growth for their resources. But that might not necessarily mean changing the core philosophies that have worked for ten years. “I think we want to continue to use the approach that we’ve used in the community,” Baird said. “Identify gaps, seek partners that we can collaborate with to fill those gaps, and then ultimately bring new resources to address the priorities that we’ve identified.” Meanwhile Barbara Revels is hoping that direct confrontation with those community gaps will not just manage them but tangibly improve outcomes. “I’m hoping that we will be participatory in helping bring about a real change in the community on mental health, addiction, abuse, and homelessness,” she said. “Those are just huge, they’re hard to resolve. People like to put their heads in the sand. They don’t want to hear about it. Governments don’t want affordable housing in a neighborhood. But if we could tackle those major issues in this county and have them where we’re helping all the people that are embroiled in those situations, and we’re able to help with that through grants, funding, and supporters…I just think it would be an amazing organization.” Connect with Flagler Cares Those interested in contacting Flagler Cares to find out more about their services can connect with Flagler Cares by visiting their official website or by calling (386) 319-9483. Office hours are listed online as 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Their office is at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, (Building B, third floor, Ste 302), Palm Coast, FL, 32164. Editor’s Note: This article was contributed first to FlaglerLive, as FlaglerLive’s editor is married to Flagler Cares employee Cheryl Tristam. It is published on both websites on terms agreed to by both parties.