A 501(c)3 N o n p r o f i t

Organizational Profile
Updated: April, 2016

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Courage Incorporated

No current physical address; organization functions remotely

Knoxville, Tennessee
Phone: 865-456-7009
Contact: Andrew Calderaro, MSW
E-mail: Info@CourageForAll.org
Web: CourageForAll.org

Board Status

Currently seeking new board members: Yes

Board development plans: Courage relocated from New York to Tennessee and
is looking to turnover its board with the exception of the director, Andrew
Calderaro. Courage is looking to fill 4-5 spots:
1-2 mental health/medical professionals
1 lawyer with nonprofit experience
1 nonprofit professional with extensive professional experience in
Knoxville
1 at-large spot
Current Board of Directors:
Andrew Calderaro, MSW: 2011-present
Anne Seifried, MPA: 2011-present
Michael Taormina, MBA: 2011-present
Steven Rossetti: 2011-present

Mental Health Advisors:

Brian Quinn, PhD, MSSW
Ronald Cohen, M.D.
Diane Gorenstein, R-LCSW

Mission

Courage Incorporated empowers people with mood disorder & health resource
information because mood molds quality living.
Year Incorporated: 2011
Year achieved nonprofit status: 2012
EIN: 45-3505740
Developmental stage: Beginning
Staff size: 1
Volunteers: Under 10

Major Funders

Tennessee Department of Mental Health

and Substance Abuse Services

Fundraisers

Chipotle Cause an Effect

IndieGoGo online campaign

Services

Mental health educational workshops

Current Work

Grounded in the

strengths-based
perspective, Courages

vision is people
attaining greater mood
health beyond the
current limits of their
depression or bipolar
disorder through
frequent community
engagement and
dialogue, greater
community
relationships, and
increased resource
usage.

1-865-HEALTHLINE RING: A Call to Health (February-September, 2016), a

collaborative mental health workshop series for young people and their families
providing education, combating stigma, and forging access to services.
HEALTHLINE RING serves Knox County 12-21-yr olds with Serious Mental Illness or
Serious Emotional Disturbance. Courage Inc. is partnering with Tennessee Voices
for Children on this series.

Target Service Populations

Children, adolescents, and adults in Knox County, and surrounding counties,

battling depression or bipolar disorder. There is a focus on both geographical
communities (i.e., specific neighborhoods) and identity communities (i.e., people
of color, economically disadvantaged, veterans, LGBTQ+, people with disABILITIES,
etc.), especially marginalized communities.

Brief History

Courage Incorporated is a 501(c)(3) that began as Courage Long Island (CLI) in

New York in 2011. Founder and director Andrew Calderaro, MSW was diagnosed
with Major Depressive Disorder at age 15. After earning his Master of Social Work
degree from Hunter College, he moved to Knoxville, TN, to start his PhD, but soon
returned to community work in his new home of Knoxville.
As Courage Long Island, the organization conducted Info Talksbasic mood
disorder educational outreachin partnership with community social services
agencies. Reinvigorated in Knoxville, Courage Incorporated is now working on a
vibrant, state-funded, and self-designed workshop series titled 1-865-HEALTHLINE
RING: A Call to Health. This interactive, empowering series serves 12-21-yr olds in
Knox County with Serious Mental Illness or Serious Emotional Disturbance.

Vision

Grounded in the strengths-based perspective, Courages vision is people attaining

greater mood health beyond the current limits of their depression or bipolar
disorder through frequent community engagement and dialogue, greater
community relationships for mood health, and increased resource usage.
Courages bold scope of view can open up incredible opportunities for health
outcomes and, thereby, our view of human greatness: each person maximizing his
or her individual potential, especially those who are marginalized. The following
groundwork feeds this vision:
Community Competence: Courage strives to shift the mental health culture. This means
generating community dialogue that shifts away from mental health stigmatization and
towards understanding of mood health as a component of overall bodily health.
Individual Empowerment: Ultimately, the individual (or family unit) is the biggest
stakeholder in their mood health. Individuals empowered with the courage to shed selfstigma and to utilize community resources are best equipped to achieve mood health.
Social Capital: A community is a collection of relationships (i.e. person to person, family to
church, person to school, service agency to people, etc.). More collaborative
relationships in pursuit of mood health knowledge and engaged in empowerment
projects can address community needs, create positive dialogue, and forge better health
outcomes.

Operating Principles
Every organization starts in the mind of one or a few individuals. These ideas
blossom into a vision that anchors the organizations heart and mind and
spearheads operations.

Human Merit: Our communitys members all have human worth and purpose.
Regardless of social status, people should have access to mood health,
opportunity to maximize their abilities, and manufacture life meaning.
Social Capital and Community: By maximizing and generating community
relationships, Courage generates social capital to leverage peoples innate
desire to be interconnected.
Cultural Capital and Competency: Communitys comprise compelling lived
experiences. Courage validates these through respect and non-discrimination
and leverages them as currency in meeting people where theyre at.
EmPOWERment: People must be uplifted. Period.
Shared Knowledge: Empowering people demands knowledge of their needs,
providing them with reliable mood health information, and giving them the tools
to create greater personal mood health.
Opportunity: Given our community resources that can be maximized or created,
the opportunity to empower is always around us.
Courage: Pursuing greater mood health requires the strength and fearlessness of
the human heart and mind.

Contact
E: Info@CourageforAll.org
P: (865) 456-7009
W: CourageforAll.org

/CourageIncorporated
/CourageIncorp

COURAGE FOR ALL