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Success Story: Lucy Klein-Gebbinck
Camden Wellness is committed to supporting people on the lifelong journey to wholeness, especially in the midst of a challenging inner city environment. We work to create awareness about wellness and offer holistic health services such as massage, reflexology, yoga and health education. We are passionate about the need to be present, particularly, to people who are limited in access to these kinds of wellness services. We work throughout the city of Camden, with people of all ages, who include folk who are homeless, people on fixed incomes, working poor, middle income. Our clientele are primarily women, and most clients are either African American or Latino. We collaborate for space with local businesses - both non-profit and for profit, with community centers, health clinics, churches and other neighborhood agencies. Currently our services are primarily massage, reiki, reflexology, chair massage and yoga. We ask clients to contribute what they can according to their income. We have four main sites, all of them named Peace Place and each site truly offers a safe and peace-filled haven to anyone who comes in. As one client stated early on, “(My massage) is a time just for me.”
Our practitioners are independent contractors who work for a modest fee, or volunteers who donate their services. Most practitioners come from the suburbs of Camden County or Philadelphia. Some have been in the field of massage therapy for many years; others are recent graduates of a bodywork class. Their service further enhances the value that Camden Wellness holds to build bridges among individuals and communities. In 1990, I joined Medical Mission Sisters. Before final vows, I moved to Philadelphia and began ministry in Camden. I intended to stay here only briefly, anticipating a mission placement overseas. My discernment was turned upside down by the comment of a client who said, “Whenever something good gets started here, it stops or gets taken away…. “ This gave me real pause and I decided to stay in the Camden area. All of us in Camden Wellness believe, passionately, that it is a matter of justice to have wellness options available in this inner city urban area where there is no other holistic health practice oriented to people on the margins.
Our greatest struggle in Camden Wellness is financial. Our largest expense is practitioner salaries. To maintain regular services, we have found we need to have a base of paid bodywork practitioners. Sliding scale does not bring the amount of income that we need to cover salaries and other expenses, so we fundraise: hosting an annual harvest benefit; sending appeal letters; writing grants. We have also regularly done contracted services where we do massage for $1.00/ minute at retreats, as part of a parish summer program, at community functions or family events. Spinning out from this effort, we are developing Worksite Wellness, where we take chair massage to for-profit businesses in Camden who pay $50 - $60 an hour. We have developed a busy practice, now doing about 1400 full hour bodywork sessions a year. In this dimension, since our beginning we served over 350 individuals and maintain almost 200 regulars. We also serve over 200 individuals through chair massage each year.
Initially Camden Wellness was a ministry of Medical Mission Sisters, and we partnered with Lourdes Wellness Center, part of the Catholic East Health Care System. The collaboration with Lourdes was critical, especially in our early days when massage was still something of an anomaly in Camden. We have evolved through the generosity of our practitioners the steady commitment of our volunteer governing board, the steady response of our clients and a shared deep faith in the spirituality of abundance. We became our own 501.c3 in February 2005. We continue to partner with Lourdes and Medical Mission Sisters who assist us in a variety of ways. Contact Lucy:
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2600 Lander Road · Pepper Pike, OH 44124 · 440-442-4160, Ext. 226 · FAX 440-442-4587 |
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Lucy Klein-Gebbinck, MMS directs Camden Wellness a New Jersey non-profit
We also have some clients who both live and work outside of Camden. They are happy to support our non-profit agency by accessing holistic health services through Camden Wellness. In doing so, they believe that they also make a contribution to the revitalization of Camden and the support of people who have limited access to health care. Thus we build bridges between communities, and raise awareness of wellness as a health care right for all people.
The biggest influence that keeps all of us in Camden Wellness motivated is the people. Despite the many obstacles so many face, they are faith-filled, hard-working, stoic, vital persons. Yes, there is deep struggle and pain in the life of inner city folk, but there is strength, endurance, laughter, and great heartfulness. Their spirit is a source of joy and hope. It is not a hardship to be here. Rather it is a mutual learning experience that is often humbling and enriches all of us.
We have many stories of people who have experienced life changes through our work. One of my favorites is that of one of our regular practitioners, who is now also the coordinator for Peace Place in Parkside. Regular reflexology alerted her to a serious imbalance in the intestines. A follow-up examination showed 6 malignant polyps that were subsequently removed. She remains cancer free, and a great advocate of regular bodywork. Her experience spurred her on to study massage, and she has been working with us for three years.