[Photo:  TransCEND staff member Elizabeth Marie Rivera-Valentine,
who participated on a panel discussion of how the work of AIDS Action impacts clients. (Source: AIDS Action Committee) ]

Courtesy of AIDS Action Committee;
By Bay Windows Contributor

Tuesday Nov 9, 2010

’People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.’ There is no more important work than what we do here. We transform people’s lives.” — AIDS Action Committee President & CEO Rebecca Haag, quoting Maya Angelou, at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the AIDS Action Committee.

A panel of five front-line staffers talking about their work with clients anchored the Annual Meeting of AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts at the agency’s Jackson Square headquarters Nov. 4.

Mark Forry, a staffer at The MALE Center, told the story of a young, homeless African American man in his early 20s who first came to The MALE Center because it was cold outside. “Literally, he came in only because he wanted to get warm,” Forry said. “And that’s okay.”

The young man kept coming by to warm up.  “Little by little we ‘accidently’ intervened with him, except it was on purpose,” Forry said. Over a period of two-and-a-half years, staff slowly gained the young man’s trust. As they did, they learned his story: he was gay and felt out of place in high school, so he dropped out. He abused alcohol and eventually started abusing drugs as well, which led to his becoming homeless. To survive on the streets, he “engaged in survival sex work,” Forry said.

Eventually, the young man participated in The MALE Center’s sex-life coaching program. Staff also helped him get into a detox program and a safe house. He’s now sober, studying to get his GED, and looking for permanent housing outside of his group home.

“There are times when I think my job is to mostly scream in the dark,” Forry said. “But every now and again, someone hears you.”

Staff attorney Kathy-Ann Hart told the crowd of about 125 staff, board members, and community members the story of an HIV-positive client going through a messy divorce who feared that her soon-to-be ex-husband was going to reveal her HIV status to her employer and family. Though the case started in the legal department, AIDS Action’s housing assistance program helped the woman find stable housing, and peer advocates helped her deal with the shame she felt about her HIV status. After working with AIDS Action, the woman eventually came out to her family about her health status, and even wrote about it publicly. After relaying the story, Hart added, almost as an afterthought, that the legal department won a financial settlement from the woman’s ex-husband in the divorce case.

Ayala Livny of Youth on Fire, a drop-in center for homeless youth, read a letter from a former member of Youth on Fire. “I was cold, sick, and lost and Youth on Fire was a welcome break from the day to day monotony of being homeless,” the letter said. The writer, who is now married with a young daughter, and in nursing school full-time as well as the Coast Guard reserves, said she had lots of help that got her to her current state. “But no one would have looked at me five years ago when I was in an abusive relationship that kept me pinned to the streets. But you did.”

Sylvia Brewer, former client of AIDS Action who is now a peer advocate working at the agency with HIV-positive women of color, told the story of a client who came to AIDS Action much as she had years earlier: living to use drugs and using drugs to live. Through patient conversation, Sylvia worked with the woman to help her get sober and deal with the shame of being HIV positive. And AIDS Action’s housing assistance program helped her find stable housing. “She’s just an amazing woman and so dear to my heart,” Sylvia said. “She’s doing great now.”

And Elizabeth Marie Rivera-Valentine of TransCEND, which assists transgender women, a population at high risk for HIV transmission, talked about the challenges many of her clients face: “A lot of our girls come in very marginalized and struggling for support. They’re too confusing for other programs to understand.” Elizabeth and her colleagues connect them with services and, just as important, listen to them as they struggle with the oftentimes overt discrimination that comes with being a transgender woman and, for many of them, being HIV positive.

AIDS Action Senior Vice President of Programs John Gatto, who moderated the panel, observed, “Every story begins with a belief in human dignity. When you restore dignity, anything is possible.”

The evening began with the dedication of a wall sculpture to 25 heroes of the fight against AIDS honored by AIDS Action earlier this year. Designed by the young people participating in programs at Artists for Humanity, the sculpture will be a permanent feature in the lobby of AIDS Actions main office. Each honoree’s name is on a wooden triangle which are arranged in a circular pattern and mounted on a steel backing.  Each triangle touches the next one in line like a domino pattern.

“Everyone looks at art differently,” AIDS Action President & CEO Rebecca Haag said at the dedication ceremony. “But to me this speaks to how interconnected we all are. We can’t do this work alone.”

AIDS Action also gave out its Commitment to Action awards, which are awarded annually to individuals, groups, and businesses whose contributions to AIDS Action serve as an example that a willingness to take action to make a difference can result in lasting change. This year’s honorees were Dr. Laura Kogelman, an infectious disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center who also raises significant sums for the AIDS Walk each year and volunteers her time and expertise to AIDS Action’s legal services; The Aquitaine Group, which has participated in AIDS Action’s Taste of the South End since its inception, in honor of staff and customers impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast Committee, which has organized the annual celebration of LGBT people of color impacted by HIV/AIDS for 21 years; and Rachel Auspitz, who died this past September, but who was a passionate harm reduction advocate who educated service providers, state officials, and community members about the needs of drug users in venues ranging from homeless shelters to the State House.

AIDS Action Committee also released its 2010 annual report Nov. 4. Titled “Stories of Transformation,” the report features the stories of five clients whose lives were changed through their work with AIDS Action. It can be experienced in full at www.aac.org/ar2010.

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