Foundation for the Advancement of Cranio Facial Education (FACE)
The FACE Foundation was established by Roger C. Mixter MD in 1990 and attained 501c3 not for profit status in 1998. FACE's mission statement includes: 1-treatment of patients with craniofacial deformities both international and dosmetic in Wisconsin (to date, 10 dosmetic patients without insurance and 20 international patients) and in their own countries in association with FACE's onsite teaching initiative (~100 cleft lip palate patients in Chiapas, Mexico with Madison, Wisoconsinite Greg Stroncek DDS and ~100 in Moscow with Russian Neurosurgeon Dima Zinenko); 2- sponsorship of foreign healthcare workers in Wisconsin (Cuban Oral/Maxillofacial Surgeon Carlos Cruanas was Visiting Professor at Marquette Dental School and the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Russian Neurosurgeon Dima Zinenko was Visiting Professor at the Mercy Health System, Dr. Rosas the Dean of the Dental School at the University of Havana will be Visiting Professor at the Marquette Dental School October 2-6, 2000); 3-Craniofacial research interests including the genetic incidence of cleft lip/palate in Chiapas, Mexico.
For more information: faceint@aol.com Lose the Tattoos! WISCONSIN TATTOO REMOVAL PROGRAM
"Gang Members only stay in a gang for less than one year…the stigma of the permanent tattoos branded on their hands, breasts, faces, arms label them for life."
Program Description
The objective of this program is to enable youths at risk, and youths with gang related tattoos to have access to laser removal of tattoos that pose a hindrance to education and employment opportunities. Voluntary physicians and technicians would perform this laser procedure in the community at inner city Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee sites. At risk youth are referred and screened by four quadrant leaders in the community. These quadrant leaders listed below include: school guidance counselors, court system officers, judicial system representatives, and gang unit specialists. Gang related tattoos would be removed in exchange for community service, job counseling and the gang member committing to a new start away from gang life. Statistics will be in place to track long-term follow up of three to five years to document the success of this program. This program is one facet of an existing Milwaukee effort to curb gang violence in southeastern Wisconsin.
Currently, our organization is directed by:
ROGER MIXTER, M.D., is a board certified plastic surgeon and director of F.A.C.E Foundation. F.A.C.E. Foundation is a not for profit foundation providing educational and surgical help to third world countries to treat children born with craniofacial birth defects. Dr. Mixter has treated children in Russia, Cuba, and Mexico. Currently, he is working in Yugoslavia to bring advanced surgical training to plastic surgeons in these areas. A clinical professor of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Mixter has a private practice in the Milwaukee area and is medical director of Laser Centers of Wisconsin. In his former practice in Janesville, Wisconsin, Dr. Mixter was medical director of a gang related tattoo program based at Beloit Hospital. This fourteen month long commitment treated 22 boys and girls with gang related tattoos. After returning to his hometown of Milwaukee to practice, Dr. Mixter saw the need to continue this project on a larger scale in Milwaukee. His surgical expertise and experience in laser tattoo removal provides the leadership to train and organize other physicians to volunteer their time to this worthwhile community service project.
CINDY GRAF is currently running a cosmetic laser business, Laser Centers of Wisconsin. Mrs. Graf has been in the medical equipment industry for sixteen years in sales and marketing positions. The last four years of her career she has been involved in running mobile and fixed laser sites to provide new technology medical laser procedures to various doctors, hospitals and surgery centers in the Midwest. Cindy has trained many physicians and laser technicians in these procedures. Mrs. Graf organized and implemented the Beloit Hospital gang related tattoo program along with Dr. Mixter and staff members of Beloit Memorial Hospital. Cindy brings the technical expertise to organize and move this sophisticated technology out into the community where children can benefit from erasing these tattoos that brand them otherwise for life.
Dr. Mixter and Cindy Graf have pooled their collective experience at the Beloit Hospital gang related tattoo program to design a program that works with the current community gang related activities structure in place in Milwaukee to bring this service into the community so many more children can be reached. In the past, state agency representatives had send these teens to St. Francis Hospital to have their gang related tattoos removed. St Francis has recently ended this program. Other similar programs have been tried through Milwaukee Police Department at Children's Hospital and a private physician, Dr. Dominitz also provided tattoo removal. In all of these programs a limited number of kids were able to be treated due to limitations of the laser equipment available, lack of funds to coordinate this activity and the inconvenience of one hospital based site.
After extensive research, we believe that a gang related tattoo removal program that goes out into the community and treats kids in their neighborhoods with state of the art laser equipment would impact the largest number of kids. This project works with existing gang related infrastructure in Milwaukee to provide administration of the technical and medical component missing from a comprehensive program which includes counseling, employment opportunities, self esteem building and community service. The program becomes an important cog in the wheel which changes lives and makes Milwaukee a safer place to live. California Youth Authority, a government sponsored program, (description attached) is a successful program for gang tattoo removal and includes community organizations as mentioned above with a medical unit to provide the technical and medical component. Cindy Graf also visited the South Texas X-gang tattoo removal program in researching this program.
For more information: www.losethetattoos.com |
