20220118 - Stigma Free Committee Minutes

Stigma Free Minutes 1/18/2022

• Danielle Pagani opened the meeting at 3:06 PM and discussed how COVID guidelines are changing daily, but discussed how we are current on school and general public guidance and mentioned our clinics on Jan 27 and Feb 2.
• Danielle Pagani thanked Gabrielle Milani for the previous presentation done with the Lukin Center. Gabrielle gave a quick summary of the presentation which was targeted towards parenting during the pandemic. Discussed doing another winter presentation targeted toward the elderly possibly. Lukin center has a newsletter and Gabrielle discussed subscribing to it to keep up to date.
• Audria Russell, Crystal Mitchell, and Brenda Flores were introduced from Iris house, which provides HIV services and education. They have a testing mobile to provide HIV testing, nutritional support, transportation to medical appointments related to HIV, and host a weekly support group. Their services are currently virtual due to COVID. They shared their social media accounts and Seeking Safety documents that were emailed out. A future possible collaboration workshop with Stigma Free, library, schools, etc. was offered on their end.
• Audrey Shin suggested Stigma Free have an Instagram account so post events because some students feel events aren’t always advertised. Dawn jumped on and said IT previously said we have a Facebook, but they didn’t suggest having both. She said we will look into it again.
• Danielle Pagani brought up doing Cards for Joy for Valentine ’s Day cards specifically. Lisa Trent from the Library already volunteered to keep at box there. Paul Vagianos agreed to run the program again. We discussed speaking to Valley to add a box? We can redecorate them for Valentine’s Day.
• Danielle Pagani brought up the Wellness Challenge March 2022-June 2022 and Dawn Cetrulo summarized the Wellness Challenge. We discussed the Walking Challenge and that how the events may still be virtual this year. We want to talk more about getting an App. The challenge is not just weight loss, it include mental health, healthy habits, etc.. Danielle Fabrizio from Valley discussed how the program includes nutrition information, bloodwork, pre and post tests, the Gym Guys, etc.. and ideas for 2022 are in discussion.
• February 15^th meeting was mentioned as a reminder for the next meeting date
• The discussion was opened to questions or comments, but there were none and the meeting was ended at 3:39 pm.