July 2009 Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

Meeting Client Needs is Just the Beginning for Case Managers
Food Drive, July 6!
Community Effort to Lose Weight & Improve Health
Hurricane Preparedness
Trips to the Grocery Store Can Result in Donations to MCC
Help Us Improve Quality of Life for GLBT Individuals in Houston
ERSICSS Invites You on a Casino Trip that will Benefit HATCH

PHOTO GALLERY

SPRY Socials Help GLBT Seniors Stay Active With Their Peers
Honor Your Loved Ones By Sponsoring a Room in Their Honor
We Have Space for You in the GLBT Cultural Center
Thanks $1,000,000!

Meeting Client Needs is Just the Beginning
for Our Dedicated Case Managers

Montrose Counseling Center's case managers are amazingly dedicated to their clients. They take turns covering on-call shifts so that someone is always available to help, even when someone shows up without appointments. They build relationships with their clients and become their support systems. They work diligently to ensure that the client's overall needs are met, often collaborating with other agencies and MCC therapists. They do what they can, however they can, to help their clients live healthier, fuller lives.

Helping clients attain overall health means going above and beyond satisfying their basic food and shelter needs. "As the leader in mental health services for Houston's GLBT communities, MCC also spearheads the effort to incorporate mental health and substance abuse issues with case management services for the HIV community," says Case Management Program CoordinatorRyan Crawford, MS, LPC, LMFTA. 

MCC case management services are available to HIV-positive individuals who meet income and residency requirements, GLBT seniors, and, in some cases, survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Case managers assist clients in a variety of ways, assessing each on an individual, case-by-case basis. Some of the services clients may be eligible for include:

• Providing crisis intervention
  
• Making referrals to homeless shelters, food pantries, and other service providers
  
• Providing food packs, hygiene supplies, and clothing to those in need
• Helping clients receive financial assistance
  
• Accompanying clients to medical appointments
• Assisting with Medicaid and other applications
• Supplying bus vouchers
  
• Helping clients and their families with end-of-life planning
• Securing hospice care
• Advocating on their clients' behalf
• Providing encouragement, patience, and support

MCC serves specialized groups, including incarcerated individuals and those who are hearing impaired. Criminal Justice Liaison Francis Bueno works with HIV-positive individuals in prisons as they prepare to transition out of jail. MCC often is their first stop after their release, and they may show up with only the clothes on their backs and the ten-day supply of HIV medication they are given upon their release. Bueno helps meet their basic food, clothing, and hygiene needs, as well as making referrals to other agencies so that all their needs are met and there is no lapse in medication. The fact that they have already built a relationship with Bueno and see her as an ally helps keep them off the streets or back in jail. 

Special Needs Case Manager Leann Randolph, LBSW, works with those who are hearing impaired. She is fluent in American Sign Language and is able to communicate with clients in person, text, email, on the phone through an interpreter, and through a recently purchased video phone that allows both parties to watch each other sign. To help empower the hearing-impaired members of our community, she recently began a free GLBT Deaf Support Group. The group meets every other Thursday evening, and participants do not need to be clients to participate. For more information, click here or contact Randolph at 713.529.0037 x312 (voice) or 832.413.6192 (video phone).

Before becoming the new Case Management Program Coordinator, Crawford worked as a case manager for MCC between 2000 and 2002. "It feels like home," he says of returning to the agency. Crawford is proud to again be serving the GLBT community. He looks forward to working with the well-rounded team of case managers and working directly with clients. He fondly remembers his time as a case manager, in particular his work with a woman who had been diagnosed with AIDS. Upon her release from prison, he was able to get her into hospice where her family often visited her. It was one of his most rewarding experiences to see her end her life with dignity, in a supportive environment where she felt respected. 

He describes the memory as one of many that impress upon him the importance of case managers."Case management is much more than taking clients from Point A to Point B," says Crawford, "Our case managers support, encourage, and advocate for their clients as they help them move from one place to another."

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Food Drive, July 6! Do Your Part for Those in Need

The Montrose Community Meltdown Challenge is kicking off on Monday, July 6, with an all-dayFood Drive for MCC's HIV case management clients and HATCH youth participants in need. Food will be collected 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. in the GLBT Cultural Center on the 1st floor of MCC at 401 Branard, as well as during the project's regular meetings.

Food packs are given to case management clients for whom nourishment is an immediate need. We often are the first stop out of jail or off the street, and the protein-filled packs help provide them with the strength they need to make it to food pantries and other sources. Food packs are also given to HATCH youth whose home situations don't provide them with enough to eat. 

You can make a difference someone's life. Please stop by on July 6 to drop off any of the following items: 

• Bottled water
• Single-serving pop-open canned chili
• Single-serving pop-open Chef Boyardee or equivalent
  
• Ready-to-eat individually packaged tuna salad
• Ready-to-eat individually packaged chicken salad
• Ready-to-eat microwavable Mac 'N Cheese cups
• Individual servings of cereal
• Instant oatmeal
• Rice
• Spaghetti
• Dry or pop-open canned soup
• Peanut butter and cracker packages
• Cheese and cracker packages
• Snack-size crackers
• Snack-size pretzels
• Granola bars
• Snack-size individually packaged fruit salad or peaches

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Continuing Education HIV/AIDS Class on July 17

Montrose Counseling Center's Continuing Education classes will feature HIV/AIDS on July 17 from 1 - 4 p.m. The class will take place in the GLBT Cultural Center on the 1st floor of MCC and is open to everyone. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for LMSWs, LBSWs, LCDCs, and LPCs. The class costs $30 if prepaid. There will be an additional $10 fee at the door.

For more information about upcoming Continuing Education classes and how to register for them, click here. Please call MCC's Education Department at 713.529.0037 for additional information. 

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Honor Your Loved Ones By Sponsoring a Room in Their Honor

Sponsor rooms in your loved ones' names, and they will forever be honored as a part of our community's history. Rooms can be named for yourself, someone you love, or your favorite community group. Opportunities begin at $5,000, which can be satisfied over time. For more information call 713.529.0037 x372 or send us an email.

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We Have Space for You in the GLBT Cultural Center

Looking for a venue for an upcoming commitment ceremony, movie screening, meeting, or event? The GLBT Cultural Center has affordable space for you! Rentable spaces can accommodate groups of up to 268 people. For more information, click here or call 713.529.0037 x372.

Leasable office space is available for nonprofit groups, but spaces are going quickly. Contact us today at the number above or send us an email.

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Thanks 1,000,000!

Thank you to FEMA and Americares for providing us with the funds to get new ceiling tiles in our parking garage. As you can see, the change has made a huge difference in the aesthetics of the building! 

  

We sincerely appreciate the Hollyfield Foundation for the $7500 they have given us for SPRY. Their support will increase SPRY's peer support and outreach efforts.

Thanks to Steven Bunch, Jimmy Carper, Judy Reeves, Eric Stutes, and John Szewczyk for organizing a GLBT  Community Garage Sale in the MCC parking lot on June 13. Thank you also to everyone who was there to buy or sell items.

We are proud that HATCH has the annual support of the Houston Area Bears [HAB] as their annual charity. Thank you, HAB, for your continuing support, in particular for your fundraising efforts at Bearwatch May 15-17 and Garnaxa Tapas Bar on June 16.

We extend our gratitude to Falcon, Scott Kenyon, and Josh Jones for the "Burning with Pride" show they organized at George on June 26. Proceeds of the show will allow people with AIDS to see the Illuminations Project performance in November, of which MCC is a beneficiary.

Thank you to the Independent Billiard League of Houston, Inc., for making MCC's HIV programs the beneficiary of the Houston Billiard Open June 20-21. Their generosity will go a long way in helping us serve Houston's HIV communities.

   
Huge thanks go out to the following people, organizations, and businesses, who generously donated food, door prizes, and services to the HATCH Prom on June 12:

• Andrea Washington
• Asians and Friends
• Carl Han
• Catering to Your Kneads
• Chris Kerr
• Coca Cola/Minute Maid
• Dave and Busters
• Dessert Gallery
• Fashionable Events
• Half Price Books
• Houston Museum of Fine Arts
• Jackson & Company
• Kirk Lammert, DJ
• Nancy Ford, emcee
  
• Raven Grill & Picnic
• Steven David, photographer
  
• The Chocolate Bar
• Ziggy's Healthy Grill