United Way of Berks County<\/a>\u00a0in 1996, using the\u00a0funding\u00a0to\u00a0continue school-based prevention education programs.\u00a0In the late 90s, the organization expanded with the formation of\u00a0Schuylkill Wellness Services [SWS] in Pottsville,\u00a0increasing\u00a0its reach to more people living with HIV and AIDS and providing prevention services.\u00a0SWS\u00a0began receiving support from Schuylkill County United Way in 1999. Additional\u00a0private funding\u00a0provided\u00a0HIV counseling and testing services in both the Reading and Schuylkill locations, and\u00a0free, confidential, and anonymous HIV testing,\u00a0thanks to secured\u00a0contracts with the Pennsylvania Department of Health [PA DOH].<\/p>\nIn 2003, the organization changed its name to Co-County Wellness Services to better reflect its mission to improve public health through service, education, and advocacy.\u00a0Berks AIDS Network and\u00a0Schuylkill Wellness Services officially became program units of Co-County Wellness Services\u00a0(CCWS).<\/p>\n
By 2014, there was another health crisis impacting our community. CCWS\u00a0met with\u00a0fellow stakeholders and community partners to address teen birth rates\u00a0in the City of Reading and Berks County\u00a0that were more than double the national average.\u00a0Co-County Wellness Services became the backbone organization for the teen pregnancy prevention initiative, Berks Teens. Since its formation, birth rates in the county have decreased by 59.3% and\u00a0dropped\u00a0by 61.4% in the city.<\/p>\n
During the global pandemic, CCWS evolved and shifted again to address the needs of\u00a0the\u00a0community,\u00a0as they were tapped by the County of Berks to handle contact tracing\u00a0and case investigation\u00a0for COVID-19. They also worked with the county to set up a temporary call center that assisted with vaccination appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have answered the call, literally, in the name of public health in our community for 40 years,\u201d said Carolyn Bazik, executive director of CCWS. \u201cAnd I\u2019m very proud of the work we\u2019ve done. So this is a celebration of the many milestones and the successes we\u2019ve been a part of through our work,\u00a0as well as the roadblocks and obstacles along the way. We\u2019ve had tremendous support with our community partners and stakeholders, and we continue to evolve to meet the needs of our community. It\u2019s humbling work,\u00a0but each and\u00a0every one\u00a0of us at CCWS and Berks Teens believes in our mission and the impact of\u00a0what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today,\u00a0Co-County Wellness Services is a\u00a0nonprofit\u00a0public health\u00a0organization dedicated to helping people with HIV and AIDS,\u00a0educating and engaging youth through comprehensive sexuality education,\u00a0and meeting the needs of our ever-changing community.\u00a0Its clinic provides both HIV and STI testing,\u00a0it\u00a0provides HIV case management, education, and prevention services, and continues to support decreasing teen\u00a0birth rates\u00a0through education and engagement.<\/p>\n
With its\u00a0prevention,\u00a0screening,\u00a0testing, and care services,\u00a0it\u00a0reaches more than 9,000 people a year.\u00a0In\u00a0the last\u00a0year,\u00a0over\u00a03,545 hours of\u00a0Care Services provided\u00a0client-centered case management.\u00a0Over\u00a083% of\u00a0its\u00a0clients live\u00a0below the poverty level, with 65% majority insured by Medical Assistance and\/or Medicare. All of\u00a0its\u00a0services remain free and confidential without discrimination in regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, medical condition, disability, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.<\/p>\n
At the commemoration of World AIDS Day on Monday, Dec. 1, Co-County Wellness Service will recognize and celebrate the milestones and achievements of the last four decades of service. In recognition of World AIDS Day, City of Reading\u00a0Mayor\u00a0Eddie Moran has announced that City Hall will be illuminated red on Monday, Dec. 1,\u00a0as \u201ca public show of solidarity, remembrance, and continued support for those affected by HIV\/AIDS.\u201d\u00a0In addition, Senator Judy Schwank will be presenting Co-County Wellness Services with a Senate Citation\u00a0in honor of its 40th\u00a0anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0nonprofit\u00a0organization began as a\u00a0volunteer effort\u00a0during the AIDS epidemic. From Co-County Wellness Services It\u2019s been 40 years since Co-County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-45715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}