Word: beate
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1990
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Street Beat ministers to the most vulnerable in an area where the high school dropout rate approaches 30% and where 1 out of every 43 babies is born with the AIDS virus. It focuses on children and young adults 13 to 25, but will assist anyone who requests help. "When you are on the streets, you can't be selective," says Russo. "You have to service everyone out there or else they will isolate you." Eighty-five percent of Street Beat's clients are female; some have up to 20 clients a night. "The girls out here work; they...
...Street Beat workers travel around in a minivan and a 31-ft.-long recreational vehicle, a wheeled medical-office-cum-rest-area equipped with an examination room, bathroom, shower and kitchen. The unit handles everything from minor scrapes and pregnancy screening to gunshot wounds. Forty-five percent of those tested for the AIDS virus are positive. "These kids operate outside the law and the health-care and social systems to such a degree that when they get on this van, they have no ID, no address, no nothing," says Ellen Flynn, 44, Street Beat's nurse practitioner...
...food stamps, equivalency diplomas and jobs, and arrange for their entry into shelters and drug-detoxification programs. "No one has talked to them about AIDS or hygiene," says Russo. "It is not that they are not educable. It is just that no one gives a damn." Because of Street Beat's efforts, a number of the youngsters are reconciled with their families, back in school or holding jobs...
When Street Beat first set up shop, the staff approached the local police stations and hospitals to announce their presence and to seek advice and assistance. Out on the street there was initial tension with the pimps, who felt threatened by any aid to their workers. But that quickly changed. "We have made the point that we are looking out for their kids," says Russo. "We are keeping their stable clean...
...Street Beat's mobile units operate five nights a week. On this evening the medical van pulls up to a quiet corner below a harsh streetlight that illuminates closed-up warehouses and auto-body shops. The pavement glistens with water from fire hydrants, which addicts tap to clean their needles. One woman paces the sidewalk with her skirt pulled above her waist, and another crouches on the ground injecting heroin into her arm. Lines of cars circle the block. Girls, men and older couples flock toward...