This Black History Month, we are honoring our Black community leaders and spotlighting Natreace Buie, NCCARE360 Referral Manager for The Arc of North Carolina. Natreace is passionate about helping people in her community and she talked to us about how she is able to better support them through her use of the NCCARE360 network.
Natreace Buie, NCCARE360 Referral Manager, The Arc of North Carolina
Natreace graduated from Queens College of CUNY in New York with a major in sociology and a goal of helping others, especially those who needed an extra helping hand. She finds personal and professional fulfillment in providing guidance to people and advocating on their behalf when they are unable to do it themselves. Having two family members with intellectual disabilities helped put her on her career path when she witnessed just how difficult it was to connect them to healthcare providers or community support and resources because of the isolated and fragmented care systems. She found her calling when she realized she could use her experience and skills to help reduce that burden not only for her family but for other North Carolina families experiencing the same struggles.
“It is definitely my calling because it fills me when I’m able to help someone.”
Natreace is the NCCARE360 Referral Manager for The Arc of North Carolina where she supervises the referral journeys for their clients. The Arc of NC provides direct support and services to individuals with intellectual disabilities to enable them to live fully and independently in the community. When The Arc of NC needed someone to implement the NCCARE360 network using the Unite Us Platform, she once again felt that calling. Natreace brought her years of experience working in a variety of roles ranging from providing direct support to individuals in group homes, to working as a coordinator in the health care sector, connecting them all to care and resources that would make their lives a little easier. All these roles have allowed her to provide guidance to those who need it most.
When she worked in the health care setting, she noticed that connecting her clients to community resources required her staff to put in a lot of extra work. To make a referral, they had to research organizations in their area, and they relied heavily on Google searches and various curated lists of providers. When she learned that the NCCARE360 network took care of the legwork of compiling organizations and was connecting health care providers to community supports, she was very excited; she knew it would be an incredible benefit.
“When I learned [about the NCCARE360 network] I was like, ‘hold on […] to be able to identify the need and to connect our individuals to organizations and to close the loop is phenomenal. With one click!’ It’s phenomenal what the NCCARE360 network offers.”
Natreace also appreciates how the NCCARE360 network addresses health equity by allowing her to identify unmet needs in the community and then reach out to help close those gaps. The network allows her to pull data and graphs to visualize what is missing, where those missing supports are needed most, and when one demographic may need more help than others.
Natreace is excited to see how the NCCARE360 network continues to grow in the future. As she put it, “teamwork makes the dream work and we do it one referral at a time.” Thank you, Natreace, for all of the work you do to help others, and for being a valuable member of our community!
