Contigo Fund receives $150K grant from Gilead
the maker of the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis drug Truvada, has given a $150,000 grant to the
which was established after the Pulse nightclub shooting and provides support to grassroots organizations that empower and help LGBTQ and Latinx communities.
The organization is distributing $100,000 of the grant to five Orlando organizations, including TRANSformation, QLatinx, Beautiful Safe Beginnings, The Center Kissimmee, Bros in Convo and Latidos.
“These resources are breathing new life into our work supporting the trans community, and particularly trans people of color,” said Charlotte “Cha Cha” Davis, founder and community crisis advocate for Beautiful Safe Beginnings, in a statement. “With new funding from the Contigo Fund, Beautiful Safe Beginnings can nearly double our programming, helping our community be treated more fairly and with respect. There is no limit to what we can accomplish together.“
Contigo is using the remaining $50,000 for building leadership, training and addressing access to services for LGBTQ individuals living in rural communities.
“Hopefully, in long term everybody just feels supported and everybody feels like they have a place that they can go to and feel affirmed,” said Joel Morales, director of operations for The Center Orlando and part of the leadership team of Contigo. “What we try to do at Contigo is really reach the most marginalized individuals and making sure that [we support] organizations that are doing that work so that everybody gets uplifted.”
is now performing CAR T-cell therapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients in Central Florida. The therapy uses the patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer cells. It’s for patients who are resistant to other treatments.
The health system is the first to bring the cuttingedge cancer treatment to the Orlando area.
“One of the best attributes of immunotherapy treatments like CAR T-cell therapy is that it’s a precise, customizable way to treat cancer,” said Dr. Juan Carlos Varela, hematology oncologist at AdventHealth, in a news release. “This therapy will be a turning point for those without options after traditional cancer treatment.”
The health system is planning to expand immunotherapies to patients with acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma.
The
Board of Directors elected Ron C. Smith as the new chair. He replaced Gary Thurber. Smith is the president for the Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which serves more than 300,000 church members across eight states in the southern region of the United States, according to the health system. broke ground on a 19,000-square-foot freestanding emergency room and a two-story, 36,000-square-foot “health park” in Osceola County. The health park is a first for AdventHealth.
It offers primary and specialty care, imaging and outpatient sports medicine and rehab. It will offer same-day appointments, with hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“Combining emergency, primary and specialty services in a single location advances our mission of extending the healing ministry of Christ by providing whole-person care close to home,” said Sheila Rankin, CEO of AdventHealth Kissimmee, in a news release.
They are expected open next year. to
is new director of community relations. Before joining the health system, Keefe was the executive director of Downtown Orlando Partnership. She’s a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
The Life Center for Women at
can now prescribe pasteurized donor human milk to families in need.
“We are thrilled to partner with Mothers’ Milk Bank of Florida so that every baby has access to mother’s milk,” said Lisa Wallace, registered nurse and lactation counselor at the Life Center for Women at LRMC, in a news release. “We are committed to providing the best care possible to our infants, and we know that human milk – when collected and pasteurized by non-profit milk banks to hospital-grade levels – is the future of postpartum care.”