Strong, Healthy Communities Vital to HIV Health

This issue of OUTReach highlights the many ways that the work of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation contributes to healthier communities. In this third decade of AIDS, the challenges of preventing infections and sustaining long-term physical and mental health are increasingly dependent on reducing isolation and connecting people to supportive communities. We understand that to grapple with HIV we need to look beyond the disease alone and focus on the community where AIDS persists.

In the ten years that I have worked at the AIDS Foundation I have frequently marveled at the community that is the AIDS Foundation itself. The clients, volunteers, board, staff and supporters make up a community defined by their shared commitment to our mission -- to end the pandemic and human suffering caused by AIDS. One of the many legacies that Pat Christen left behind from her extraordinary 15-year tenure as Executive Director is a vibrant and dynamic community that takes large and small actions every day to move us closer to an end to AIDS. Year in and year out, the people that make up this tight-knit group amaze me with their resilience.

This community manifests itself in hundreds of ways. Trained volunteers consistently show up at our needle exchange sites to make sure clean syringes and supplies are available to those in need. Our conference spaces are filled nightly with facilitators and participants of the Black Brothers Esteem groups, the Latino Support Group and Gay Life workshops. Every morning clients come through our doors seeking support -- access to stable housing, help navigating the maze of disability benefits, and assistance in adhering to HIV treatments. Often people just need to talk to one of our client advocates about coping with HIV disease for ten or even twenty years.

As these daily acts of community unfold here, other AIDS Foundation staff and HIV advocates tend to the complex mechanics of HIV policy in Washington D.C. or Sacramento. The stakes can be very high at this level -- impacting millions of dollars of funding for San Francisco or fighting for legislation that can affect the lives of tens of thousands of individuals at a time.

This hard work is sustained by another vital element of the AIDS Foundation community -- donors, both new and ongoing, who support this work by riding bikes, running marathons, walking in AIDS Walks and through the simple, generous act of writing a check.

All the while, our volunteer board of directors guides our work through their visionary governance activities -- constantly asking difficult questions and seeking answers that will eventually lead us to an end to this pandemic. One of the questions constantly asked is, "How can we make the broadest impact in our community with the resources we have?"

As I serve in the Interim Executive Director role, I am tremendously comforted by this AIDS Foundation community that participates every day in our work. You should be as well, for you are both a part of this community and a beneficiary of its successes. While our work to build healthy communities is focused externally, we need look no farther than our own agency to find a model for success.