Volunteers and CAP!

Last fiscal year, CAP volunteers gave over 21,000 hours of their time. This time has been estimated to be worth $550,000! Volunteers serve in our office and programs, and at events. They are an invaluable resource; without volunteers, some of our wonderful programs—like the Oregon AIDS/STD Hotline—wouldn’t even exist.

The state of Oregon has been ranked 11th in the nation for percentage of residents who volunteer for an organization. The city of Portland was ranked 2nd! We are so lucky to benefit from living in a place full of such engaged, active people.

How can YOU help (and win a massage!)?
Volunteer now and make a difference for years to come! CAP is gathering signatures for a petition to be listed on the Charitable Checkoff list that goes out with your Oregon tax return. We need 10,000 valid signatures and AIDS Walk is our best chance to get them. Training is offered for signature gathering volunteers.

There are two chances to help next week:

• Pink Party Bar Crawl, Wednesday, Sept 29 from 6 to 11pm. Meet at CAP at 6pm. Volunteers will get a t-shirt, pink boa & drink ticket.
  
• AIDS Walk Portland, Sunday, Oct 3 from 7:30am to 12:30pm. Meet at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Volunteers will get a t-shirt, pedometer, water bottle and Nike duffel bag.

Anyone who joins us as a Signature Gatherer at the Bar Crawl or AIDS Walk Portland will be entered into a raffle for a $50 gift certificate at Coldwater Creek Spa. We estimate 30 volunteers, so the odds are good!

Want to volunteer, but can’t for the AIDS Walk?
No problem—we’d still love to have you! The first step prospective volunteers should take is to attend a Volunteer Orientation. The next one is Tuesday October 5th—if that date doesn’t work for you, you can find one that will on CAP’s agency calendar.

Contact Volunteer Coordinator Marc Kochanski to sign up at mkochanski@cascadeaids.org.

CAP Program Highlight: LUES

Latinos Unidos Enfrentando el SIDA (LUES)

LUES is the Spanish language acronym for Latinos United Confronting AIDS. LUES provides culturally driven HIV prevention education in the Latino community. Over the past four years, CAP has seen the number of its Latino clients increase by 31%. Based on the continued disproportionate effects of HIV in the Latino population combined with feedback from the community, CAP secured funding from the United Way to expand its prevention efforts in the Latino community.

The goal of LUES is to reduce stigma and promote healthy behaviors in relation to HIV and STDs through education, training, outreach, and social marketing. Partners include Multnomah County Capacitation Center, the Oregon Council of Hispanic Advancement (OCHA) and Hacienda CDC.

LUES works with Latino youth to develop and produce social marketing materials. Middle school and high school students participate in age appropriate and culturally relevant sessions learning HIV and STD information, as well as information on how to use the media as a tool for educating their communities. With the support and guidance of CAP staff, youth produced six short radio novellas. They were broadcast on the radio in Spanish, reaching thousands of listeners with messages about HIV prevention, and are now available on CD.

In collaboration with the Multnomah County Community Capacitation Center, LUES provides HIV capacity building training to Community Health Workers. Sessions are based on popular education. They also offer two popular education basics trainings per year and will be offering an STD training in the near future. In addition to the trainings for community health workers, shorter trainings are offered for more informal HIV Educators ideal for groups interested in creating HIV experts in their community (church groups, alcohol and drug treatment groups, etc). Some of last year's Educators include Hacienda's parent involvement group.

LUES participates in several community events per year. Events vary from film screenings to health fairs. We usually partner with county health departments to conduct on-site testing at these events.

Cascade AIDS Project conducts outreach and education in migrant camps and with day laborers. These critical services bring HIV education and testing to populations at increased risk for HIV and late detection. In the camps, our long-time partner, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, provides mobile medical care services and Washington County Health Department does rapid testing. At the day labor site, Outside In provides medical services and testing.

For more informations, contact Maricela Berumen at 503.278.3867.