6.30.2009
HIV Working Group Meeting July 22nd
We will continue the discussion on HIV Prevention and HIV Positive Guys.
The HIV Working group safer-sex kit campaign is operating with three distribution points: The DC Center, Town Dance Boutique, and Ziegfelds/Secrets.
The group also finished up working on a coordinated National HIV Testing Day Event.
6.22.2009
Free HIV Testing on June 26th and 27th Across City
Carl Vogel Center
1012 14th Street NW, 20005
DC Caribbean Festival (Georgia & Kansas Aves. @ TEP Entertainment) 10AM-5PM
La Clinica del Pueblo, Inc.
2815 15th Street NW, 2009
Diversity Park (Columbia Rd & Euclid St.) 10AM - 4PM (near Columbia Heights Metro)
PreventionWorks!
2501 Benning Road NE, 20002
Onsite @ 2501 Benning Road NE 10AM-4PM
Project Orion, Andromeda Transcultural Health
1400 Decatur Street NW, 20011
DC Caribbean Festival (Georgia Ave & Otis St.) 10AM-3PM
SMYAL-Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League
410 7th Street SE, 20003
Metro Teen AIDS @ Greenleaf Rec. Center 11AM-5PM (SW at the Waterfront Metro).
Transgender Health Empowerment (T.H.E.)
1414 North Capitol Street NW, 20002
Onsite @1414 North Capitol Street NW 12-4PM
Us Helping Us, People Into Living
3636 Georgia Avenue NW, 20010
3636 Georgia Avenue NW
Whitman-Walker Clinic
1701 14th Street NW, 20009
Artomatic (55 M Street, SE) 12PM-6PM (Navy Yard Metro) P Street Beach (23rd & P) 12-3PM DuPont Circle (20th & Mass) 3-6PM
Family & Medical Counsel. Service, Inc.
2041 MLK Jr. Ave. SE, 20020
Onsite @ 2041 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, All Day
Unity HealthCare
3720 MLK Jr. Avenue SE, 20032
Onsite @ 3720 MLK Jr. Avenue SE, All Day
Community Education Group
3233 Penn. Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20020
With PreventionWorks! 2501 Benning Road NE
Mary's Center
2333 Ontario Road NW, 20009
Diversity Park ( Columbia Rd & Euclid St .) 10AM - 4PM (near Columbia Hgts Metro)
The Women's Collective
1277 Brentwood Rd, NE, 20017
Neighborhood testing (1277 Brentwood Rd, NE ) 10AM-6PM
Prevention Works Neighborhood Block Party and Health Fair for National HIV Testing Day
12pm-5pm
Prevention Works!
2501 Benning Rd NE
Free food, raffle, HIV testing, blood pressure checks, medicine management, and more!
Joining us will be: American Lung Association, Center for Minority Studies, Falcon Edge, CEG, Black Nurse Association, DC Healthy Families, Center for Sickle Cell, and The Condom Project.
This event is co-sponsored with the DC Department of Health with contributions from Safeway and Giant Foods.
For more information, please contact Courtenay Vaughns: cvaughns@preventionworksdc.org
6.21.2009
Update On Washington DC HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Recently I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Shannon Hader, Washington DC HIV/AIDS Administration Director, discuss the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington DC. I read the stories in the Washington Post and Time Magazine, but they contained only a small synopsis of the real problem. To hear the entire presentation and to see all the statistics is a real call to action. All are welcome to join us, space it limited to the first 100 people.
The National Minority AIDS Council, along with the AIDS Institute, National Association of People with AIDS, and National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors invites you to a presentation by Dr. Hader on the state of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Washington DC. All are welcome to join us, please bring your friends and family. It is a very eye opening report that will both shock you and demand your action.
Join us on Tuesday, June 30th at 10:00 AM at the Reeves Center at 14th & U St NW. Please RSVP in advance so we have enough space (RSVP @ info@nmac.org). You will need to bring a government ID to get into the building. We will meet in the Community Room on the 2nd floor.
As folks who live and/or work in the District, it is critical that we understand what is happening in our own backyard. It will be up to all of us to fight back and save the District.
National HIV Testing Day Posters
The posters feature a variety of diverse pictures with simple messages about the importance of HIV Testing. Pick up your posters at the DC Center. You can also visit the CDC National HIV and STD Testing Resources website to download the pictures.
And remember, while you're at The DC Center you can also pick up free condoms, lube, and dental dams. The DC Center is located at 1111 14th St NW Suite 350 and is open Monday through Friday from 2:30 to 6:30 PM and other times by appointment.
6.18.2009
Free Testing and HIV Awareness
Prevention Works Enrollment Session for Safety Counts
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2:00pm
Prevention Works!
2501 Benning Road, NE
Contact person: Yvonne Green 202-588-5580 x104
Funded by the Department of Health, Safety Counts is a Risk Reduction Group Intervention. Please join us for this enrollment session to determine eligibility and willingness to enroll in Safety Counts. *Refreshments & Incentives provided*
Safety Counts is an HIV prevention intervention for out-of-treatment active injection and non-injection drug users aimed at reducing both high-risk drug use and sexual behaviors. It is a behaviorally focused, seven-session intervention, which includes both structured and unstructured psycho-educational activities in group and individual settings.
6.15.2009
4H Club Benefits the HIV Working Group
This month's GLBT partner (and beneficiary) is the DC Center's HIV Working Group. Money raised will help support the working group's new safer-sex kit distribution campaign. Come out for a wonderful evening and show your support for our HIV/AIDS work.
Thursday, June 18 from 5:30pm - 9:30pm at the Morrison-Clark Inn, 1015 L St NW.
Safer Sex Toolkit Assembly Event
REMINDER: HIV Working Group Meeting June 24th
The topic for this month's discussion is HIV Prevention and HIV Positive Guys. The HIV Working group is also working on a coordinated National HIV Testing Day Event.
6.08.2009
Understanding The HIV/AIDS Epidemic In Washington DC
Join us on Tuesday, June 30th at 10:00 AM at the Reeves Center at 14th & U St NW. Please RSVP in advance so we have enough space (RSVP @ info@nmac.org). You will need to bring a government ID to get into the building. We will meet in the Community Room on the 2nd floor. As folks who live and/or work in the District, it is critical that we understand what is happening in our own backyard. It will be up to all of us to fight back and save the District.
Frank Oldham
NAPWA
Julie Scofield
NASTAD
Carl Schmid
AIDS Institute
Paul Kawata
NMAC
Amid Criticism, D.C. Plans Big Effort to Spread Word on AIDS
By Darryl Fears, Washington Post, Tuesday, June 2, 2009
On her drives from one end of the District to the other, Anita Hawkins is struck by the rarity with which she sees billboards or bus stop advertisements telling residents that AIDS is a major health threat in the city.
"I live in D.C., and now I don't see it as visibly as nine years ago," when the virus was killing mostly gay men and the city government mobilized to combat the disease, said Hawkins, an assistant professor at Morgan State University. "We had this big push, and then what happened?"
Hawkins is on to something. Despite evidence showing that advertising increases AIDS awareness, there's almost no marketing to inform District residents of the problem's magnitude.
A report by the city's HIV/AIDS Administration (HAA) says 3 percent of the District's population has HIV and AIDS, the worst prevalence rate in the nation, easily surpassing the 1 percent rate of infection that makes up a severe epidemic.
The problem is probably worse than the report says. Researchers did not count people who are infected but untested. Shannon L. Hader, the HAA's director, estimated that the actual rate is 5 percent.
In the fall, the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice sharply criticized the city's AIDS awareness effort, saying in a report that it lacked the urgency needed to address such a large epidemic. "You should definitely expect more," said Phill Wilson, head of the Black AIDS Institute, which works to reduce infection in black communities.
City officials say a sustained social marketing blitz is coming.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration -- alarmed by research showing that heterosexuals in highly infected areas engage in unprotected sex under the mistaken belief that straight people are not at risk -- committed $500,000 annually for five years for a marketing campaign, Hader said.
But there's doubt over whether HAA can mount a meaningful campaign in the expensive advertising market with that small amount. To be effective, advertising experts say, Hader needs millions more from Fenty (D) or more free public service announcements from television and radio stations, billboard companies and Metro.
"This should not be simply a public-health effort," Hader said. "This should be a community effort helped by the folks who have the space."
It's unclear how aggressively the city has sought public service ads. A spokesman for one local television station, WRC (Channel 4), said no one in the NBC affiliate's advertising division recalls being approached by HAA.
"We feel this is an area where a great deal more needs to be done," said Walter Smith, executive director of D.C. Appleseed, a nonprofit group that addresses civic issues. "We believe it's a leadership issue. I mean Fenty, in part, but there's more than one leader in the city."
Another activist, A. Toni Young, defended the city, saying an ad campaign by HAA last year played a strong role in calling attention to an underutilized program that provides free medication to people with HIV and AIDS. Enrollment in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program increased by 50 percent after ads aired on television and radio and were posted on billboards and public transportation, said Young, executive director of the Community Education Group, which engages in AIDS-related social marketing.
"It was very effective," Young said.
Without the support groups and social networks backed by the HAA, advertising would have a short reach, Young said. "To batter HAA has been a fashionable thing to do, but if you took a bus across the river on Pennsylvania Avenue, you would see ads for the Act Against AIDS campaign," Young said.
The Act Against AIDS campaign was started last month -- by the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the city. But a couple of weeks ago, the HAA started experimenting with its marketing approaches.
The agency launched Realtalk, a promotion aimed at youths. A poster tells them to "drop in for some fun at the Freestyle Youth Center," at 651 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, where they can get free tests for HIV and venereal diseases that can facilitate HIV transmission. They also can get information about other test sites and where to pick up free condoms.
The HAA's office on New York Avenue abounds with AIDS-related posters that have faded from view: "Know Your Facts," "Come Together DC -- Get Screened for HIV," "Sex With One Means Sex With All" and "A Million Ways to Stop HIV: One Million Free Condoms for DC," a giveaway campaign two years ago.
Next month, the HAA plans to announce a marketing campaign aimed at heterosexual couples, said the agency's spokesman, Michael Kharfen, who is also in charge of marketing. The promotion will implore sexually active straight couples to get tested and to know their partner's health status. Heterosexual sex is the fastest-rising mode of HIV transmission in the city, particularly among black residents in wards 6, 7 and 8.
Spreading the word about HIV and AIDS is difficult because of its stigma. Infected people say they feel isolated because of the illness, and straight people say they don't want to be caught with a prevention brochure or researching the disease on the Internet because it might suggest homosexuality, a taboo in the black community.
The HAA will buy space on billboards and public transportation, but broader marketing will depend on public service ads. "We could wipe out our entire budget by buying a few ads on television and newspapers," Kharfen said. "We can't afford it."
Tina Hoff, vice president and director of Media Entertainment Partnerships for the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the foundation has gotten around the expense of advertising by working closely with MTV, Black Entertainment Television and Spanish-speaking Univision to urge minorities and young people to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
The marketing challenge faced by the District reflects a nationwide trend, according to a survey released last month by Kaiser. Americans who said they had "heard, seen or read a lot" about HIV and AIDS in the United States fell from 70 percent in 2004 to 45 percent this year. Those who specifically said they've viewed "a lot" of AIDS-related messaging fell from 34 percent to 14 percent.
As she stood at U and 16th streets, District resident Geneen Taylor said she would welcome more information than the few advertisements she has read on buses and heard on radio.
"I'm an African American woman, and we're the fastest-growing group of new HIV infections," Taylor said. "It's always in the back of my mind. It's frightening."
HIV Working Group Meeting June 24th
The topic for this month's discussion is HIV Prevention and HIV Positive Guys.
The HIV Working group recently kicked of their new safer-sex kit campaign at Town. (see the pictures here). They are also working on a coordinated National HIV Testing Day Event.
6.03.2009
Prevention Works! Training: HIV Meds and Street Drugs & Outreach to Crack and Methamphetamine Thursday, June 25th
Thursday, June 25th, 10am-4pm
Prevention Works!
2501 Benning Rd NE
Spaces are limited! To reserve a slot, please an email to Mary Beth Levin, Director of Programs and Services (mlevin@preventionworksdc.org).
This is the fourth in our series of monthly trainings facilitated by technical experts from the Harm Reduction Coalition in New York. The description is as follows:
HIV Meds and Street Drugs
In this current “abstinence only” culture, there has been minimal research conducted on how street drugs and HIV medications interact. This course will take an honest look at how ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines can potentially have a negative interaction with HIV/AIDS medications. This course is a must for HIV/AIDS case managers!
Outreach to Crack and Methamphetamine Users
This workshop will demonstrate and discuss the techniques for working with crack and meth users, a community of people traditionally neglected by service agencies. This workshop will focus on specific outreach tools, materials, and harm reduction tactics that have been successful with this “hard to reach” population. Attendees will leave this training with practical ideas and skills that they can apply to their own setting and the people they work with.