Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
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Supportive Services SCAC’s supportive services include emergency financial
assistance, transportation, supplemental food, an HIV/AIDS resource center, free
and anonymous HIV testing and counseling, client advocacy, and community
education and outreach. The Emergency Financial
Assistance Program, which provides assistance for clients
experiencing financial hardship, has long been a crucial component of SCAC’s
supportive services. Federal
funding through the Ryan White CARE Act is matched four to one by SCAC’s
privately raised dollars. In 2002, more than $50,000 from these two funding sources
provided assistance in paying for clients’ rent, utilities, medical expenses,
nutritional supplements, and other miscellaneous expenses. SCAC’s Transportation
Program, provides clients who do not have access to transportation, or
are not physically able to drive, with rides to medical appointments and
counseling sessions. The
transportation program furnishes other transportation on an “as needed”
basis to social services agencies or pharmacies.
Usually, these appointments are in Sussex County, but may also be as far
away as Wilmington, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. This service is staffed entirely by volunteers.
Each year volunteer drivers provide more than 300 rides for clients
enrolled in the program. SCAC’s Supplemental Food
Program has two important goals.
The first is to provide non-perishable groceries to persons needing food
assistance. The second is to give
participants information about good nutrition and healthy lifestyles.
Not a traditional food closet, this program encourages clients to be
proactive in meeting their nutritional and budgetary needs.
Supplemental Food clients live throughout Sussex County and SCAC provides
home delivery of food for approximately 60 percent of them. The SCAC Resource Center
is an HIV/AIDS specific library available to persons infected or affected
by HIV/AIDS. The center, the first
and only HIV/AIDS specific resource center in southern Delaware, provides
comprehensive, multi-media information on the medical, legal, and social aspects
of HIV/AIDS infection and treatment. More
than 400 book titles, magazines, audio and video tapes on HIV/AIDS related
topics, educational pamphlets, brochures and newsletters, and an internet
accessible work station and internet training are available to those infected
and affected by HIV/AIDS. Now in its fifth year, the SCAC Resource Center has
increasingly become recognized by those living with HIV and AIDS, as well as
professionals serving the HIV population, as a reliable source of information
and services. The Center is staffed
by a full-time director who is a knowledgeable resource for HIV/AIDS information
and ably facilitates shared concerns and relevant interests by infected and
affected individuals. Workshops and group support programs are essential aspects
of the Resource Center and cover a broad range of topics and interests including
legal issues, Social Security disability benefits, good nutrition, grief and
loss, holistic healing, funeral pre-planning, CPR training, and integrative
health issues. These topics were
selected with the input of clients and presented by knowledgeable, professional
experts from the community. Client socials are another way in which people with shared
experiences can come together to grow, learn, network, and gather support from
others in a relaxed, informal setting. Holiday
dinners, “potluck” dinners, picnics, amusement park outings, and other
events are planned throughout the year and have provided many opportunities for
HIV+ individuals to learn and grow with others living with the disease. SCAC also helps clients meet a variety of needs that
may not be addressed by other agencies. This assistance, support, and advocacy
includes: -
Distributing
donated furniture and clothing, -
Lending
available medical equipment, -
Acting as
advocates for persons experiencing difficulties in receiving services needed. Prevention Services In partnership with the Delaware Division of Public Health,
SCAC provides HIV Prevention Services
to four specifically targeted populations. Our Partners of Positives program
provides support groups for men and women living with an HIV-positive partner.
Participants meet regularly at SCAC to discuss shared interests and
concerns. Facilitated by certified
HIV testers/counselors, the support groups include educational presentations by
guest speakers and experts in various fields. HIV prevention outreach for African-American
Heterosexuals in Western Sussex takes SCAC’s HIV prevention,
testing, and support services to at-risk areas in Seaford and neighboring
communities, specifically targeting at-risk African-American heterosexuals.
While African-Americans comprise less than 20 percent of the state’s
total population, they account for nearly two-thirds of Delaware’s total AIDS
cases. HIV prevention outreach for Injection
Drug Users in Western Sussex is a parallel program to the
African-American heterosexual outreach activities. Risk reduction, counseling/testing, support services, and
referrals are made to this high at-risk target population in Seaford and
neighboring communities. HIV Risk Reduction for Youth
provides group level interventions at Boys and Girls Clubs, community
organizations, and schools in Sussex County to educate and increase adolescents'
knowledge about the dangers of premature sexual activities.
The goal is to reduce teens’ risks of becoming infected or infecting
others with HIV, and to encourage their peers to make healthy and positive
decisions about sex. SCAC’s Sources of Funds Truly a community-based organization, SCAC began as an
all-volunteer group of people that met in private homes in the mid 1980s.
Early brochures describe SCAC as being developed “around the kitchen
table in the homes of its first members.”
During those first years, efforts of the community focused on providing
much-needed hospice care and supportive services for persons who were dying from
AIDS. These services were provided
with meager financial resources, and are a testament to the commitment and
generosity of those first volunteers. By 1991, SCAC had become a cohesive group of concerned
people interested in helping persons with HIV infection and AIDS.
The AIDS epidemic had spread and the need for services had grown.
SCAC responded to that challenge by, first, incorporating as a charitable
organization, gaining its 501(3)(c) status in that year.
Secondly, it embarked on an aggressive fundraising campaign by
instituting a series of annual fundraising events, supplemented by smaller,
on-going fundraising efforts. SCAC’s
financial stability enabled it to become the first HIV/AIDS agency in southern
or central Delaware to respond to the financial needs of infected residents. In 1995, SCAC entered into its first contractual
relationship with the Delaware HIV Consortium, which administers Delaware’s
federal Ryan White Emergency CARE Act funds.
These funds have substantially underwritten the client
(non-administrative) costs of SCAC’s supportive services programs.
New contracts with the Delaware HIV Consortium and Delaware Division of
Public Health provide further funding for HIV prevention outreach to at-risk
populations. Still, it is the financial support from many, many
individuals, organizations, corporations, and churches that enables SCAC to meet
the needs of clients. From 1995
through 2002, SCAC has provided more than $200,000 in emergency financial
assistance to clients through its own privately raised funds.
These funds are above and beyond those provided through the federal Ryan
White Emergency CARE Act. In addition to individual gifts and contributions, SCAC is a
beneficiary of the annual LOVE benefit, held in Rehoboth on the July 4th
holiday weekend, and Sundance, held each year on Labor Day weekend.
SCAC also sponsors a bi-annual benefit concert by the acclaimed Gay
Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC, sells commemorative ornaments during the
holidays, and has money collection cans in more than 250 locations throughout
Sussex County. In 2001, the SCAC Endowment
Fund was established at the Delaware Community Foundation to provide
long-term financial support and create new ways for our friends and supporters
to give deferred gifts to SCAC.
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