Our Mission & Purpose
To promote holistic well-being, community engagement, and self-reliance in rural, historically marginalized communities. Our purpose is to educate, inspire, advocate, consult, counsel, and increase awareness in rural, communities of color, and beyond in support of a better way of life.
DISCLAIMER: Shackle Free Community Outreach Agency, Inc. is a non-partisan nonprofit 501c3 organization. Our organization DOES NOT endorse any particular candidate for election.
Upcoming Events
Our organization is in search of statewide volunteers and partnerships with non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, civic groups, and our trusted barber and beauty shops and institutions.
Please call (910) 226-8138, Tues - Thurs from 10a - 3p for more information.
The 5th Annual Santa's Barbershop
Toys for Tots Campaign
Delivering hope to children at Christmastime and beyond!
Through the gift of a new toy or book, Marine Toys for Tots’ programs deliver joy and send a message of hope to America’s disadvantaged children. To date, Marine Toys for Tots has distributed:677 million toys to 301 million deserving children.
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DUPLIN COUNTY - December 14, 2024
(Registration has closed. Unregistered persons may pick up toys between 4-5 p.m). Are you a vendor? Please join us as we make this a holistic event. Use the button below to register.
ONSLOW/PENDER COUNTIES - December 15, 2024
See flyer for details. Use registration link below to register. Registration period closes December 10, 2024.
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WE ARE YOUR COMMUNITY VACCINE/PPE RESOURCE HUB!
Shackle Free is registered with DHHS as your community vaccine/PPE resource hub!
Need a FREE at-home test kit, masks, or PPE supplies? Stop by our office located at 224 W. College Street, Warsaw, NC Tuesdays - Thursdays from 11:00 and 3:00 p.m.
Need to locate a vaccine provider in your area?
Click below for more information on COVID-19.
In other news....
Shackle Free Founder/CEO receives White House mention at ARPA Summit: Dr. Somava Saha - Director of Communities RISE Together, an initiative facilitated by the Public Health Institute and WE in the World joins the White House Workforce Development Summit, June 2022, to discuss the Communities RISE Together Initiative. At 4:00 of this playback, Dr. Saha mentions the work of Founder/CEO Chiquitta W. Lesene and The Shackle Free Buzz Initiative, a state-of-the-art communications tool, utilizing trusted barber/beauty institutions as community resource centers in rural, BIPOC, historically marginalized communities in Eastern North Carolina. To date, Shackle Free has guided one hundred and one (101) Community Health Ambassadors through Duke Cancer Institute's Office of Equity & Community Engagement to be certified in cancer and diabetes, with more than half of those CHA's being barber and beauty professionals, trusted messengers naturally delivering resources from behind their chair. Congratulations Team Free, it is just the beginning!
What's all THE BUZZ about?
Our community barber and beauty institutions are a trusted space to discuss personal and public issues, ranging from family to politics, health, money, and other life issues. "The Buzz", inspired by our agency's own GoodDaddies Fatherhood Initiative, is an innovative tool utilizing barber and beauty institutions to mitigate and communicate useful information to historically marginalized (chronically poor), BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color), and rural (hard to reach) communities. an effort to increase awareness around increasing families' access to support through local barbershops and beauty institutions across the country. Shackle Free has over one hundred Community Health Ambassadors certified by Duke Cancer Institute Office of Health Equity in the areas of cancer and diabetes, the highest in the State of North Carolina. Of these, more than half represent the barber and beauty industries. Institutions that have participated in the CHA program include: James Sprunt Day & Evening Barber College, Heads Up Barber Academics Co., Craven Community College, and Central Piedmont Community College. Our CHA's represent multiple regions across the state including, but not limited to: Duplin, Onslow, Pender, Sampson, Cumberland, Pender, Wake, and Mecklenburg Counties. It is anticipated that in 2030, the country will experience a 50 million decrease in the healthcare industry due to COVID-19 medical burnout. It will be up to our "trusted messengers" as we feature in The Buzz, to build community health teams to encourage health and wellness in our communities. Click the button below to learn more about becoming a Shackle Free Community Health Ambassador or to partner on this "makes sense" initiative!
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Benjamin J. Moore, COO, The Shackle Free BUZZ
UPCOMING EVENTS
Click below to stay tuned to our blog and newsletter (coming soon) for information on upcoming events and opportunities available in your community! We suggest that you also download our app and subscribe to our site to check out our new e-newsletter!
In order for us to best serve you, we would like to know what needs to be done. Please complete this short well-being survey to let us know!
GALLERY
CEO Lesene provides ROMA (Results Oriented Management & Accountability) Training to a group of community action professionals in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Shackle Free's Camp Unity Team walks against poverty in the Annual Warsaw Veterans Day Parade.
CEO Lesene provides ROMA (Results Oriented Management & Accountability) Training to a group of community action professionals in Winston-Salem, N.C.
COMMUNITY HEALTH AMBASSADORS ARE VITAL!
A disabled African American male between the ages of 50-65 presented to the Warsaw office requesting assistance. Shackle Free’s Community Health Ambassadors conducted a holistic wellness assessment and determined that his needs were: food, housing, utilities, transportation, clothes/personal hygiene items. Participant stated that his landlord is refusing to make necessary repairs to the home that he is living in and the conditions of the home are inhabitable. He stated that he could see through the floors, rats and other rodents are able to get inside the home, the bathroom was leaking therefore causing an increase in his monthly utility bill. Shackle Free CHA’s assisted the participant in securing safe, affordable housing at a local apartment complex;
provided him with household items, food, clothing, and other basic necessities. Now that he has been given a hand up instead of a hand-out, he can now focus on his health and continue to work with his assigned Shackle Free CHA on the other goals that he has identified in his Success Toolkit! ๐
A single young mother, who has a child with disabilities, presented to the Warsaw office seeking assistance with food and housing. She stated that she was actively looking for a place to live because she had been living with someone and was at risk of being homeless soon. The participant was able to secure housing ; but did not have the financial means to pay her first months rent and deposit to move in. With help from the holistic assessment and resource navigation provided by Shackle Free Community Outreach Community Health Ambassadors; this participant was able to secure the funds to help with her first month’s rent helping her to break the shackle of homelessness. Shackle Free CHA’s also helped this family connect with an organization closest to her for food, considering that she doesn’t have her own means of transportation. Her assigned CHA continues to help her to reach other goals from her Success Toolkit by providing hope, encouragement, and support to assist her and her child in becoming holistically healthy! With this type of support, this young mother can redirect her focus on setting and reaching her goals and her family’s overall health and wellness.
