Re-entry services Specialist honored at ceremony in Mount Vernon

On Friday, February 21, Community Linkage Specialist Vincent Swinnie was honored by the city of Mount Vernon for his work at the City of Mount Vernon Second Chance Summit. City Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard honored him and his fellow co-founders of Taking Responsibility & Uniting Communities Through Education (T.R.U.C.3.)

In his work at Alliance, Vincent helps dozens of people adjust to life after incarceration. He provides essential harm reduction and career-readiness skills to set people up for long-term success. He spoke at the Summit’s panel “Rewrite the Script: Changing the Narrative of Our Lives,” sharing personal stories and motivations that have helped him and the countless people he’s positively influenced rewrite their narratives.

Photos: City of Mount Vernon.

Valentine's Day Condom Event for Women at Alliance

Valentine’s day was all about the ladies at Alliance, as we hosted a community event with games, raffles, safer sex conversations and arts and crafts.

We were joined by Toi Pressley, PrEP Program Coordinator at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Robert Pitts, MD Bellevue Hospital Infectious Disease Specialist.

All photos: David Nager/Alliance

Watch video of last year’s festivities here.

Last year's events

Black AIDS Awareness Day

On Friday, February 7, Alliance marked Black AIDS Awareness Day with educational panel discussions about PEP, PrEP, and new treatments in HIV. We also held social events including jeopardy, bingo, and an Instagram live discussion between @thealliance_nyc and @captaincondomNY.

All photos: David Nager

Alliance Visits Statehouse in Support of Health Homes and Harm Reduction

On Tuesday, February 11, over a dozen Alliance staff, Peers, and participants took buses up to Albany. We met with legislators about the essential services our Health Homes care management provides to thousands of New Yorkers with chronic conditions, and about our harm reduction services. We asked them to continue supporting these programs that change people’s lives for the better. We also attended a rally in the capitol in support of overdose prevention centers (OPCs) where Peer Worker Shantae Owens spoke.

thank you to our coalition partners iHealth, Argus Health, St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, VOCAL-NY, Housing Works, Truth Pharm, and many others.

Sign the pro-Health Homes letter

Alliance attends LinkLocal Appreciation Breakfast

LinkLocal has generously provided free kiosk advertising to Alliance since 2022, and we were honored to join their network at a partner appreciation breakfast held earlier this week. Their network of kiosks provide essential services including access to chargers, wi-fi network, and have provided over $16M in free advertising to local small businesses and nonprofits

Alliance has run advertising campaigns near all our community centers, thanks to LinkLocal. View photos here and here.

Commissioner Dynishal Gross, NYC Department of Small Business Services, spoke at the event, as did many small business owners who’ve utilized the free kiosks.