LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Update |
by Glen Pruitt |
Sussex County AIDS Board Votes to Dissolve Agency
The Sussex County AIDS Council, Rehoboth Beach's local AIDS Service Organization, will close its doors on June 30, 2009. The decision to close was made by the SCAC Board of Directors, based on fiscal challenges faced by the organization. "SCAC has been providing services to the HIV/AIDS community for many years," current SCAC Board President Curt Barrows said recently. "Unfortunately we simply do not have the money to continue those services any longer." Barrows cited the general economic downturn, a decrease in charitable giving, and the loss of funding from state contracts as contributing factors. SCAC's origins were humble: it literally began around someone's kitchen table in 1985. From its start, SCAC worked to improve the quality of life for Sussex Countians living with HIV disease. Its keystone services included a financial assistance program and a transportation program. "I don't know how I would have gotten to my doctor's appointments, if it weren't for SCAC," said one client, who asked to remain anonymous. "SCAC and its volunteers kept me alive." SCAC's financial assistance program helped clients pay for housing and medical costs, with private dollars giving the organization the ability to meet client needs in a way that federal dollars could not. In fact, there were some years in which SCAC matched its federal funding for this service four times over. SCAC was an all-volunteer organization for its first ten years. It was only in 1995 that SCAC hired its first two staff persons, as well as purchasing a property for its office on South Street, just off Coastal Highway between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. Professional staff developed additional programs for SCAC to offer to the community. For two years (19961997), SCAC used the second building on its property to provide transitional housing for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Later the building was converted into the Sussex HIV/AIDS Resource Program (SHARP) Center, a resource center that offered an HIV library, online resources, and educational program specifically for people living with HIV disease. The program was one of only three funded anywhere in the state of Delaware, and it was the only one that enjoyed any kind of real success. Other client services provided by SCAC included a brown bag food program, as well as a clothing closet. Originally focused on serving people already infected by HIV/AIDS, SCAC expanded its focus eight years ago. It added staff members who were trained to provide HIV counseling and testing, and it began offering HIV prevention outreach, particularly to the African-American and injecting drug using populations in Western Sussex County. These services were funded through direct contracts with the Delaware Division of Public Health, another first in SCAC's history. That history is still being written, at least for the time being. "All of this is a work in progress," Barrows clarified. "While June 30 is SCAC's last day of operations, there still is much to be done." SCAC staff members will be working with representatives from the Delaware HIV Consortium and the Delaware Division of Public Health to provide a seamless transition of its contractual services. "We want to make sure that clients do not go without transportation services especially," said SCAC Client Services Coordinator Evelyn Wellman, who delayed her own last day of employment at SCAC to help with that process. The Board is looking at its own responsibilities, considering several possible scenarios. One of those scenarios is to liquidate SCAC assets and to distribute the proceeds to other AIDS-related organizations. However, that is not the only option available. "The Board has discussed the idea of taking the proceeds from the sale of the property to establish a foundation that can fund AIDS-related projects on a continuing basis. We want to keep the issues of health and HIV/AIDS alive in Sussex County." The Board is also open to hearing other ideas from the community. Interested persons are invited to attend the next SCAC Board meeting, scheduled for Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held in the SCAC offices on South Street. Written comments or suggestions may also be sent by email to Glen Pruitt at the Delaware HIV Consortium (gcpruitt@delawarehiv.org). SCAC's history is much more than contracts and dollars. SCAC's history is people. It includes the hundreds of people living in the community who are also living with HIV/AIDS, people whose lives were touched and changed for the better. SCAC is the many outstanding staff members who wrote the grants, developed the programs, and completed the necessary reports. SCAC is also the community who supported it financially, especially CAMP Rehoboth and its members. "If it weren't for CAMP (Rehoboth), there wouldn't have been an SCAC. CAMP was a huge part of SCAC's success, and we appreciate it," added Barrows. Most importantly, SCAC is its volunteers. It is the volunteers who drove clients to the doctor appointments on cold winter mornings. It is the volunteers who served on its Board of Directors or on its fundraising teams. It is the volunteers who emptied donation cans, folded newsletters, baked Christmas cookies, or sorted donated food and clothing. SCAC is all the people who were the hands and hearts of SCAC to the world. For all those things and more, the community is grateful. Glen C. Pruitt is Associate Executive Director of the Delaware HIV Consortium and a member of the board of directors of CAMP Rehoboth. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 19, No. 05 May 22, 2009 |