Alliance's “PATH to Jobs” Program Included in Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s Top Ten Requests For Community Project Funding

—Innovative workforce development program puts New Yorkers in need on path to economic mobility; now eligible for $1 million in federal funding—

(New York, N.Y.)—U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (New York’s 12th Congressional District) has selected Alliance for Positive Change’s “PATH to Jobs” peer workforce development program as one of the top ten projects she has submitted for federal Community Project Funding for FY2022. If chosen, the program will receive $1 million to vastly increase Alliance’s career readiness and job placement services, helping significantly more New Yorkers along their journeys toward recovery and economic independence.

“I thank Alliance for Positive Change and Sharen Duke, along with the entire dedicated staff, for hosting me at their facility,” Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said. “Every aspect of the Alliance’s mission is deeply committed to improving the lives of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. They have created an environment that both helps and heals adults of all ages and backgrounds who are struggling to secure healthcare, jobs services, and nutritional support. It is incumbent upon legislators like myself to support organizations like Alliance for Positive Change and ensure they get the funding they need to continue the great work they are doing to help the people of New York City, especially as we recover from the COVID-19 crisis.”

“I am fiercely proud and often awed by the courage and tenacity of our Peers, making positive changes in their own lives, and then ‘paying it forward’ to help others,” said Sharen I. Duke, Alliance CEO & Executive Director. “Alliance is profoundly grateful for Congresswoman Maloney’s leadership and dedication to New Yorkers, and honored by the Congresswoman’s visit to Alliance, seeing us in action, and meeting the Peers who partner with us to provide training and support through the PATH to Jobs program.”

Founded 30 years ago amid the early years of the AIDS epidemic, Alliance serves low-income New Yorkers with a range of chronic health conditions and substance use challenges, offering them medical care, harm reduction, peer support, and housing assistance in their path towards health and stability. Since 1992, Alliance’s PATH to Jobs has provided career readiness and job placement services, including vocational education, coaching, supervision, training, benefits counseling about the impact of employment on public entitlements, and support in successfully attaining and sustaining employment. 

Graduates of this program find job placement opportunities in health and social service agencies across New York, and at Alliance—which has built its own Peer workforce, employing 130+ Peer workers trained by the program each year.

Scaling Alliance’s PATH to Jobs program will facilitate the creation of a centralized career readiness and job placement program across New York City. State certified Peer workers will be placed in part-time and full-time jobs in: managed care companies and Medicaid Health Homes; hospitals and community health centers; HIV service agencies; STD clinics; syringe exchange/opioid overdose prevention programs; substance use treatment clinics; supportive housing programs; and community-based organizations of all kinds.
 

About The Alliance for Positive Change

The 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 structural barriers to accessing quality medical care, managing/overcoming substance use, 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

HIV service organizations receive Covid response funds

The Alliance for Positive Change and our Executive Director Sharen I. Duke are featured in Crain’s Health Pulse New York. Check out the article below!