“Our jobs may be different now, but our goal is the same: to help members live healthier and better lives.” Check out this video made in collaboration with SelectHealth for the End the Epidemic Summit 2020, featuring Alliance staff member Peter Soter and Peer Navigator Daniel Edmund. They beautifully illustrate the importance of Peers and outreach, especially during the pandemic.
Alliance for Positive Change Awarded Grants to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Access
—Funding will expand equitable vaccine access among New Yorkers disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including low-income and BIPOC communities—
—Amid the Delta variant, the need for increasing vaccination rates has taken on new urgency—
(New York, N.Y.)—Amid the rise in Delta variant-related coronavirus cases, Alliance for Positive Change, a nonprofit that has been working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic for three decades, has been awarded grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Fund for Public Health. The funding will help to reduce preventable COVID-19 infections and death among New Yorkers disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including low-income and BIPOC communities.
Support from HRSA will advance goals to stop the spread of COVID-19 by implementing strategies that Alliance has deployed for decades in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including leveraging partnerships and community outreach to identify and engage New Yorkers who are vaccine hesitant. In partnership with Housing Works, Argus Community Inc., and BOOM!Health, the grant will enlist Alliance’s corps of peers to serve as community vaccine ambassadors, and involve weekly discussion groups, outreach through Alliance on the Move -- the organization’s mobile van, development of educational material, assistance with scheduling vaccine appointments, and employ social media to reach new audiences.
The Fund for Public Health’s Vaccine Equity Partner Engagement Project supports equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. The grant will strengthen Alliance’s ability to disseminate tailored, community-informed, and culturally relevant messaging about vaccines to address concerns in disproportionately impacted communities, and provide one-on-one navigation services to improve access to vaccinations in Central Harlem.
“Alliance is eager to implement the outreach and education strategies we have learned over the past three decades as an organization serving New Yorkers with HIV and other chronic health conditions to expand equitable vaccine access amid the pandemic,” says Arianne Watson, Director of Outreach & Community Engagement at Alliance for Positive Change. “Tailored vaccine messaging in communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic will be instrumental to advancing the fight against COVID-19.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that has presented significant obstacles in efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. New data demonstrates that people living with HIV who become infected with the coronavirus are at extremely high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. HIV testing—our most important tool for early detection that saves lives—has decreased by as much as 45% nationwide. People have lost access to care due to lockdowns and increased economic hardship, while the overburdened and under-resourced healthcare system has struggled to keep up.
About Alliance for Positive Change
Alliance for Positive Change supports lasting, positive change among low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. Focusing on underserved communities of color, our culturally competent, multilingual services remove barriers to accessing quality medical care, managing addiction, escaping homelessness, and achieving economic mobility. We address the underlying issues that contribute to health inequity through individualized, full-service support based on a harm reduction approach designed to help New Yorkers lead healthier, more self-sufficient lives. Because everyone deserves the chance to feel better, live better, and do better. Learn more at www.alliance.nyc.
Crain’s Health Pulse: Nonprofit participating in NIH initiative to target Covid in underserved communities
June 21, 2021
A nonprofit providing support to New Yorkers living with HIV or addiction has announced an initiative to encourage Covid-19 testing in underserved communities.
The Alliance for Positive Change said it has partnered with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Argus Community on a National Institutes of Health program to engage with communities that are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. Arianne Watson, associate director at the alliance, said the effort is focused on people struggling with substance abuse.
"They're at a cross section of a lot of different vulnerabilities in which they still are at a higher risk to not only have Covid but also spread Covid," Watson said. "Screening and education are still very imperative to risk reduction."
The NIH funds the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations initiative. According to the NIH website, the $512 million RADx-UP project aims to understand the factors associated with Covid-19 morbidity and mortality and to work to reduce risk among underserved and vulnerable populations.
Two strategies will be employed for the initiative, Watson said. One is chain referral, in which study participants reach out to people in their social networks to encourage more testing. The other is Alliance Peers, which Watson described as a more traditional method. People with experience go into the community and try to get others on board to get tested, she said.
Watson said the initiative started last year, when the Alliance met with Columbia and the Psychiatric Institute to coordinate the effort. In the coming weeks, she said, they'll be going out into the community to kick off testing.
"According to the most recent New York City Department of Health Covid-19 data, the South Bronx still has some of the highest rates of Covid-19 infection in all of New York City," Daniel Lowy, deputy executive director of Argus, said in a news release. "Argus Community will be reaching those at-risk community members to know their status, provide Covid-19 health education and link those who test positive to care." —Gabriel Poblete
Dining Out For Life NYC is cancelled this year
This summer would mark our third anniversary participating in the international Dining Out For Life fundraiser.
However, given the impact of COVID-19 on our community and clients and the ever-developing challenges and demands Alliance faces to ensure the delivery, quality, and impact of our services, we will not hold the event this year.
Initially planned for April, then re-conceived as a virtual event – Dining IN For Life – scheduled for July 30, the event has been (and will be again!) a wonderful way to convene friends, colleagues, Alliance staff and Peers, along with our corporate and restaurant partners to eat, celebrate, and support the work we do. This year we will not have this opportunity. But, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need the funds.
In the spirit of “Dining” together, we ask that you contribute to Alliance’s Coronavirus Support Fund, a fund that directly addresses the painful and compounding issue of food insecurity amplified by the virus: www.alliance.nyc/giving. 100% of your donation will go to support our food and nutrition initiatives.
Our work, providing a range of care services to New Yorkers living with HIV and other chronic illnesses, substance use, and homelessness has always been essential. This year, under the cloud of COVID-19 where our community has been particularly hard hit, it is critical. And it requires grit, ingenuity, and resources—human and financial.
Despite the necessities of social distancing, program reductions, and facility closures or limitations, Alliance has been on the streets, in our harm-reduction van, and on the phone (calling over 6,000 clients weekly!).
Alliance trained staff and our powerful legion of Peers are:
· screening for COVID-19
· evaluating essential physical, medical, and emotional needs
· helping to determine plans of action
· providing boxed meals
· delivering pantry items
· issuing gift cards for food to the homebound/isolated
· offering harm reduction services, HIV and HepC testing, free condoms, and syringe exchange
· making certain that our locations adhere to strict safety standards
· being that voice that simply says “I’m here…”
In advance, thanks for your understanding and your help. A contribution of even $10 or $20 will make a difference, put food on what might otherwise be an empty table, and even put a smile on someone’s face (albeit under a mask ;). www.alliance.nyc/giving
Feel Better. Live Better. Do Better.
NY1 Acts of Kindness Features Alliance
NY1's Kristen Shaughnessy highlighted Alliance in her Acts of Kindness report, lauding volunteers at our 30-year nonprofit for distributing hundreds of gift cards and PPE to vulnerable New Yorkers.
Learn more about how Alliance is caring for our community during the coronavirus outbreak here: www.alliance.nyc/coronavirus and support our work by giving to the Coronavirus Support Fund today!
Nonprofits must not be forgotten in coronavirus
See Alliance’s OP-ED, written by our Executive Director Sharen I. Duke, in AM New York Metro.
