Annual Pediatric AIDS Benefit Concert by Medical Students Raises $35,000

The 17th Annual Pediataric AIDS Benefit Concert, held by the medical students of Drexel University College of Medicine, raised $35,000 this year. Funds raised by the students is used to partially support the salary of our child life person and as an emergency fund for families. The event, held right after "Snowmageddon", one of this year's massive snow storms was well attended despite the weather. The concert is entirely student run and features musical performances by students and faculty. Everyone reports having a great time and the music, as usual, was wonderful. Dr. Daniel Schidlow, Chair of Pediatrics at St. Chris, sang select opera performances at the beginning of the show and Dr. Dennis Novack, one of the founders of the concert series performed with his band at the end. Pictured here, are this year's co-chairs Prianka Chawla and PJ Wagner when they stopped by clinic to drop off some t-shirts for some of the kids from clinic. Program staff have commented about how great it was to work with PJ and Prianka this year and look forward to meeting next year's co-chairs.

Construction on New Clinic Space Begins

For a planned June opening, Immunology will be re-locating across the parking lot to the Waldo S. Nelson Pavilion on the grounds of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. While the move is not far, the new space is a giant leap. Staff will gathered from multiple office locations into one area with greatly improved work flow and new furniture. The Immunology re-location is part of large capital improvement project at St. Chris by Tenet Healthcare, starting with the Immunology Program and culminating in expansion of the Emergency Department. Stay tuned for information about our face lift and re-organization of the program-- and especially the grand opening party and picnic.

Collaborator of the Week: Northeast Treatment Center

The Juvenile Justice Program at the Northeast Treatment Center is our featured Collaborator of the Week. We're currently providing HIV education and rapid HIV testing at the program for girls (Henry House) and boys (the Firehouse). Both of these are residential programs for youth in the Philadelphia Family Court system who are awaiting placement at other facilities. While they are they, they receive counseling, medical and dental care, and life skills training. Our experiences with them have been great. Our staff who go there only have great things to say about the place. "The girls at the facility were very engaged during our workshop and they asked a bunch of questions because they were learning new things about their sexual health and they wanted to know how to protect themselves the STDs/HIV" "Our presentation was only supposed to least an hour but it ran almost 30 minutes longer."

Barbara Bungy Leads Successfull National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Events

Barbara Bungy, Youth Outreach Coordinator at the St. Chris HIV Program and the recipient of funding from the DHHS Office of Women's Health, lead the program to a successful event for National Woman and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The event, held at the Rose of Sharon Apostolic Church had 20 contributors presenting information HIV/AIDS and STD prevention, but also health screenings around nutrition and heart health. The workshops were well attended and focused on preventing HIV/AIDS and in building healthy relationships. We plan to have this become an annual event. Comments from participants included: "Appropriate and helpful workshop, I learned a lot about HIV transmission" "Out community really needs informtion about HIV and domestic violence. Thank You!: "I learned that there are more resources available in the community that doesn't cost a penny!!!"

St. Chris Team Improving Our Time Management Skills

Michael Thomas, of The Tomato Group, Inc. presented a day long Time Management Seminar for all program staff so that we can have tools for effective time management. Michael is a nationally known trainer who specializes in professional development for individuals working in social service fields. He taught us to help separate what's urgent and what's not and what's important and not. Not only was it fun, but he also helped us develop valuable insights into those things about us that lead us to procrastinate.
We found Michael through Dr. Sandra Bloom of Drexel's Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice because she knows him from their work together with Sanctuary.

The St. Chris Teen Peer Academy Featured in "The Source"

Dr. Jill Foster and her co-authors Theresa Parrino, LCSW, Maria Frontera, MSW, and Dr. Maureen Davey write about the St. Chris Teen Peer Academy in The Source, a twice yearly publication by the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center (AIA) (funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau). The article discusses the successes and challenges of Teen Peer Academy, the after school peer support and training program for HIV positive youth. The article also features art and poetry from two of the program's teens who are part of the program. A print version of the article will be distributed nationally in the next several weeks. The Source provides information for service providers of children in families affected by issues around HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. The AIA funds the Family Centered Home Visitors Program of the Health Federation of Philadelphia.

Colllaborator of the Week: Youth United for Change

Each week, we will highlight one of the local agencies we have a chance to work with. This week, it is Youth United for Change. YUC is an agency "dedicated to developing young leaders in Philadelphia and empowering them to improve the quality of education and services in their communities to better meet their needs." With chapters throughout Philadelphia, they provide educational seminars and provide skills building for youth to improve their options and success for the future. Visit their website to learn more about them. This week we had the opportunity to provide HIV education and testing at one of their sites and our staff came back raving about how great they were. Marie and Tira's comments included: "Great group of students, their interactions during the presentation was one of the best we have seen."

Dr. Laguerre to Give Grand Rounds on Rapid Testing

On March 12, Dr. Roberta Laguerre will present grand rounds at Crozer Chester Medical Center to the Department of Emergency Medicine on the topic of rapid testing for HIV in the emergency department. In her discussion, she will emphasize the CDC recommendations for HIV testing in healthcare settings and provide proven strategies for implementation in this settings. The experience in the St. Chris clinic is that many of our newly diagnosed patients have had multiple encounters with health care providers prior to being diagnosed with HIV. Many of them had these encounters while being symptomatic with acute HIV infection, increasing their unknowing risk of transmission of HIV to others.