Jeff Hunter introduced Ruth Cameron - Executive Director of ACCKWA - Aids Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Area. Ruth is also a student at Laurier, taking her Doctorate researching new prevention programs
The highlights:
- Ruth has been in this position for the past 7 years
- 12 staff, 5 peer volunteers, and about 70 regular volunteers
- 3 sites between KW and Cambridge, with Cambridge being located in the Cambridge Self Help Food Bank building
- last year, over 9,000 interactions, assisting 5,000 individuals; just over 2,000 of those in Cambridge
- they used to concentrate on HIV, heroin, cocaine, etc. however, things have become far more dire in recent years with the opioid crises, and even more so in the last year or two with crystal meth making things far worse.
- we learned that meth is popular because it's comparatively inexpensive, and, a meth high can last for days, providing the 'benefit' staying awake so they can protect themselves, all the while dissapating feelings of hunger and thirst, making living on the street 'easier' to handle
- as time goes on, things are deffinitly getting worse - Ruth has a plan to greatly increase the services available in Cambridge, but funding and space are two very big issues. Unfortunately, being located in the food bank is no longer a good fit, with young families sharing the same space as individuals high on meth
- perhaps the saddest fact was that when someone makes the choice to break their habit, to get into rehab, to finally get the help they need to turn their life around....... they're told - "that's great, we'll put your name on a 3-5 month waiting list - hopefully you'll feel the same way once a spot opens......."
Ruth was thanked by Dean, and again by President Chad
