Our Work

Our mission is to promote health, wellness, and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV, through sexual health and substance use services, advocacy, and community partnerships.

Our Strategic Priorities

To advance our vision and mission, we align our resources to the following four strategic priorities for 2019 – 2024.

• Expand and maintain HIV, hepatitis C, and STI prevention and treatment, and other sexual health services to ensure equitable access and utilization by people of color.
• Expand and maintain existing substance use services, syringe access, and overdose prevention efforts, including establishing safer injection sites.
• In partnership, create a comprehensive network of health and wellness services for all people over the age of 50 who are living with HIV.
• Strengthen organizational excellence with a focus on living our values, including a commitment to racial justice.
• Respond to public health crises with a race equity strategy.

To accomplish our strategic priorities and have the greatest impact, we use three mutually-reinforcing core strategies.

1. Provision of integrated sexual health and substance use services
2. Advocacy, which includes policy and system-fix work, public education, capacity-building and research
3. Building and strengthening community partnerships

Five-year Targets

Our strategic plan will have the following impact on San Francisco.

1. People living with HIV will have equal rates of viral suppression regardless of race and ethnicity.
2. Fewer than 100 people living in San Francisco will newly acquire HIV in 2024.
3. 90% fewer people living with HIV will have hepatitis C because of increased awareness, testing and treatment.
4. 10,000 fewer people will die from drug overdose over 5 years because of overdose prevention efforts including safe injection services.
5. 50% fewer long-term survivors will experience isolation, poor physical health or unmet mental health needs.

Our work is organized into five interconnected program areas: sexual health, substance use and behavioral health, engagement and retention, social support, and policy and public education.

Sexual Health

We provide no-judgement sexual health services for people living with HIV, gay, bi and queer men, trans and gender non-binary people, people who inject drugs and their friends, and many other communities at risk for HIV. Community members can access health services through Magnet, our clinic in the Castro, and at our main office. People who inject drugs can also receive HIV and STI testing at the Harm Reduction Center. Sexual health services include HIV and STI testing, STI treatment, trans health, anal health, hepatitis C services, vaccinations, PrEP and PEP.

Substance Use & Behavioral Health

Substance use is one of many factors impacting HIV risk, and people living with HIV who inject drugs have the lowest viral suppression rate of any transmission category. Our substance use and behavioral health services are based on principles of harm reduction, offering substance use counseling and substance use group support. We work in partnership with clients who use crystal meth, cocaine, heroin, alcohol and other drugs to help them create the goals that make sense in their lives.

Through The Stonewall Project, clients access outpatient substance use treatment services and walk-in group and individual counseling. Syringe Access Services expands options for people who inject drugs and people experiencing homelessness, allowing them to get sterile injection equipment and connect to other health care services. We also have a Syringe Pick Up Crew that cleans up improperly disposed syringes in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco.

Services provided include substance use treatment, counseling, overdose prevention training and education, opioid replacement therapy, syringe access, and disposal services.

Engagement & Retention

A critical component of our work is ensuring people living with HIV have access to health care services, housing and public benefits. Through these services, we are helping people connect to HIV care and achieve viral suppression ensuring better health outcomes and preventing new infections.

Our housing & financial benefits team ensures that clients can access housing through rental subsidies for people living with HIV and coordinate access to other public benefits including drug assistance programs, health insurance and nutritional assistance. Our health navigation team helps people connect to HIV care and achieve and maintain viral suppression.

We also operate a Centers of Excellence, Black Health, which helps clients who have co-occurring HIV, mental health and substance use diagnoses achieve viral suppression through intensive medical case management and other supportive services.

Social Support

We cannot end the HIV epidemic in San Francisco until all communities have equal access to health care, housing, and social support.

Our teams provide social support, health education and individual advocacy services in safe and supportive spaces that center Black and Latinx communities, transgender and gender non-binary people, and long-term HIV survivors over age 50. Our teams work across program areas to ensure that clients have access to our entire spectrum of services.

Policy & Public Education

We champion evidence-based HIV/AIDS policy in San Francisco, California and in Washington D.C., fighting every day to protect the human rights of people at risk of and living with HIV. Our community mobilization team provides countless advocacy opportunities for community members to speak truth to power.

Our health education materials and online resources share information about HIV prevention and treatment, PrEP, substance use, harm reduction and more. Find our fact sheets and campaign materials in our Resources Library and visit our blogs.

Our teams also conduct and publish research related to public health, substance use and social support. See current and past research projects.