American Lung Association of Delaware Grant to CAMP Rehoboth
CAMP Rehoboth is proud to announce receipt of a grant in the amount of $15,000 from the American Lung Association (ALA) of Delaware to continue classes aimed at tobacco prevention and cessation and to offer nutrition and exercise training to promote healthy living overall. CAMP Rehoboth and ALA share the common goal of helping community members live longer, healthier lives.
Last year ALA provided CAMP Rehoboth with a $12,000 grant, and CAMP Rehoboth offered free tobacco cessation classes, workbooks, and social media support to about 40 participants. Most of those who participated either quit, pledged to quit, and/or significantly reduced their smoking/vaping habits. We also began discussions with youth in local high schools around the topic of tobacco use prevention.
With continued ALA funding, this year’s CAMPQuit program has broadened to address healthy living goals of physical activity, nutrition, and obesity prevention. CAMPQuit will collaborate with Beebe Medical Center and local restaurant chefs to address a healthy diet and nutrition. CAMP Rehoboth will collaborate with the YMCA to offer temporary YMCA memberships to promote exercise and lifestyle changes. Tobacco cessation classes and social media support will continue at CAMP Rehoboth, and the organization will also provide stress management and social interaction supports.
Importantly, the program will continue outreach to youth in the high school Gay Straight Alliance group and continue to refer anyone who wants to quit smoking to the highly effective Delaware Quit Line atquitnow.net/Delaware (1-866-409-1858).
As an expression of the commitment to tobacco cessation, effective immediately, CAMP Rehoboth is declaring the CAMP Rehoboth courtyard to be a Smoke-Free Zone.
To learn more about this program and CAMP Rehoboth, contact camprehoboth.com or Sal Seeley at 302-227-5620.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation and CAMP Rehoboth Partner
CAMP Rehoboth is very pleased to announce receipt of a grant in the amount of $7,990 from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) so that critical services of HIV, STI, and STD testing, counseling, education, and referral services can be expanded to three days and at least one evening per week in Georgetown, Laurel, and Seaford locations. Funds from AHF will allow CAMP Rehoboth to expand a new pilot program initiated in January 2017 in Western Sussex County under the auspices of the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH).
The collaborative effort between AHF, DPH, and CAMP Rehoboth will assist people living in Western Sussex County to better guard their health and will help minimize the impact of living with the virus for those persons affected. The human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and sexually transmitted infections (STI) and diseases (STD) can affect people of all ages, genders, races, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, or sexual orientation.
The aim of the program is to support both people who have an identifiable medical condition and those who do not. The first goal is to identify new HIV/STI/STD cases and provide those individuals with counseling, information, and support while quickly moving them into treatment to address their disease and prevent further infection. The program’s second goal is equally important: to provide education and support to people who test negative so that they maintain their HIV negative status.
CAMP Rehoboth’s CAMPSafe program has offered these same services in Rehoboth Beach for many years. This is the first time these free services have been offered in Western Sussex locations. Additional partners in this collaborative program are the ACE Peer Resource Center in Georgetown and Seaford, the Macedonia AME Church in Seaford, and the Laurel State Service Center, all of which have given space in their buildings for CAMP Rehoboth to offer services.
Initial community response has been immediate and strong, and CAMP Rehoboth hopes to continue expansion of services to meet the needs of residents in Western Sussex County.
Transgender Day of Remembrance
By Kathy Carpenter of TransLiance
The Transgender Day of Remembrance Memory Mile was held on Monday November 20. Rehoboth TransLiance in conjunction with Safe Harbor United Church of Christ and MCC Rehoboth held a short vigil, a reading of the names, and then a one mile walk on the Boardwalk.
According to its national web site “The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people...mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, love and respect was expressed for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends, and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those who have died by anti-transgender violence."
The event was held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28, 1998 kicked off the Remembering Our Dead web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil held in 1999.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 23 transgender people have been killed in the United States in 2017, equaling the record 23 people killed last year.
For more information email Kathy Carpenter, or visit our website at meetup.com/ Rehoboth-TransLiance/.