Giving a HOME for the Holidays

For the first time in many years, Donna will be home for the holidays. A real home where she will make her grandmother’s spice cake and tuck her children into their own beds.

AidForAIDS_crop_widerDonna is in her new home thanks to you, our supporters.

Have you already made your year-end gift to Alliance for Housing and Healing? A tax-deductible donation will ensure that Donna and 1,449 other clients who are dealing with HIV/AIDS are not living on the streets, wondering about their next meal. and giving up on life-saving medications.

Our programs are providing:

  • Transitional housing with 24/7 care to 38 people,
  • Permanent supportive housing to 275 people including 47 children,
  • Emergency rent payments to nearly 200 clients,
  • Housing case management for those who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, and
  • Food vouchers for individuals and families who are uncertain about their next meal.

Your contribution makes a tangible difference.

  • $60 buys a food voucher,
  • $200 pays an overdue utility bill,
  • $400 buys vitamins and supplements for six months,
  • $1,200 is an emergency rent payment for a family in need.
Please give what you can.

Every dollar counts.

Sincerely,

TG-Signature

 

 

Terry Goddard II
Executive Director

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Thank You Gelson’s!

December 10, 2013 by admin

gelsons_tim2013The holidays are officially announced with Tim’s Mahoney’s annual visit. Bearing a generous check from Gelson’s, Tim is all smiles knowing that our work brings hundreds of families home for the holidays. Support from Gelson’s and other wonderful donors makes this possible by providing housing and supportive services to our neighbors who might otherwise be homeless during this special holiday season. Thank you Gelson’s!

Join Gelson’s with a corporate or individual donation now by clicking here.

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John Monahan is a Warrior!

December 4, 2013 by admin
Warren Wimmer, John Monahan, and Terry Goddard II celebrate the Paul Starke Awards.

Warren Wimmer, John Monahan, and Terry Goddard II celebrate the Paul Starke Awards.

John P. Monahan was presented with the Paul Starke Warrior Award on December 2nd as part of the West Hollywood World AIDS Day events. As a board member of The Serra Project and later the Alliance for Housing and Healing, John tirelessly dedicated his resources to our mission to provide housing for those living with HIV/AIDS. (more…)

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WeHo Honors 7 with Paul Starke Award for HIV/AIDS Service

December 4, 2013 by admin

From WeHoVille

Click here to read the story on the WeHoVille website

Warren Wimmer, John Monahan, and Terry Goddard II celebrate the Paul Starke Awards.

Warren Wimmer, John Monahan, and Terry Goddard II celebrate the Paul Starke Awards.

The City of West Hollywood has recognized employees and volunteers of local agencies who have done exemplary work in providing prevention, education and direct HIV/AIDS services with its the Paul Starke Warrior Awards.

Paul Starke was a former member of the West Hollywood HIV and Substance Use Services Providers Consortium and an employee of Being Alive, an organization by and for people with HIV/AIDS, who died in 2001. Starke worked in social services throughout his life, helping troubled youth, individuals with substance abuse problems and people with HIV/AIDS. He was also very involved in the medical updates sponsored by Being Alive and AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Positive Images Consortium.

Those honored are:

Teig Keenan, Being Alive. Keenan was born in Queens, New York and has lived in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He tested positive for HIV in 1985, and his participation in an AZT clinical trial began his journey to a new healthy, productive and long life. His participation in support groups in New York and San Francisco led him to Being Alive when he arrived in L.A. in 2004.

Over the past 10 years Keenan has been involved with Being Alive as a participant and volunteer. As a volunteer he has taken on many roles including filing and clerical duties, answering phones, confirming appointments and helping with the cleaning and upkeep of the Being Alive offices. Most recently, Keenan has been managing the front office and assisting with the Sculptra program.

John Monahan, Alliance for Housing and Healing. Monahan has served on the board of directors of Alliance for Housing and Healing for nine years during which he was instrumental in the merger of Aid for AIDS and the Serra Project to create Alliance for Housing and Healing. The combined agencies offer housing and supportive services to 1,500 people each year.

Monahan is a retired senior vice president of WellPoint Health Networks and is the former president of state-sponsored business for WellPoint. As president of state-sponsored business, he was responsible for the management of health coverage for 2.1 million underserved members in 14 states.

An expert in health coverage, Monahan is a supporter of the Alliance for Housing and Healing’s efforts to provide housing to clients who are struggling with HIV/AIDS and poverty.

Cory Schneider, AIDS Project Los Angeles. Schneider began his clinical work at AIDS Project Los Angeles as a training intern while in his Masters program in psychology. He developed a solid caseload and assumed responsibility for facilitating Film Night, a collaboration with Being Alive in West Hollywood.

Schneider extended his stay at APLA as a registered intern in West Hollywood. He continues to volunteer, providing psychotherapy and facilitation for the group. Schneider also volunteers as a speaker at schools in their anti-bullying campaigns.

April Saravia, Friends Community Center, (division of Friends Research Institute). Saravia came to the United States to live with her father when she was seven years old. She grew up in New Orleans, and while living there she felt different, growing up as a boy, and she discovered that she was a woman. She knew she had to leave New Orleans to become a woman.

Saravia arrived in Los Angeles in 1995 and quickly turned to doing sex work to survive, and became addicted to crystal meth. After living on the streets for seven years she found her way into the Van Ness Recovery House. After nine months of sobriety, she become an outreach worker in the TransAction program at Friends Community Center.

Saravia continues to work at Friends Research Institute as an HIV outreach educator for the TransAction program, working with transgender women at all stages of their lives. She conducts group-level skill-building interventions, individual risk-reduction counseling, HIV test counseling, and street outreach to transgender women in West Hollywood and adjacent areas.

Saravia also is active in the LOTUS group, which empowers transgender women in the community, and has served as co-chair of the Transgender Service Provider Network (TSPN). On September 21, 2013 she celebrated 7 years of continuous sobriety.

Cary Stevens, AIDS Research Alliance. Stevens, a second-generation Los Angeles native, earned his Bachelor of Arts at UCLA and his Master of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, graduating with honors in 1983. Since 1987, Stevens has been a partner in the architectural firm Landa Stevens Architects, which has offices in West Hollywood.

Stevens held the position of chairman of the Board of AIDS Research Alliance (ARA) from 2007 to 2013, having joined the board in 2005. He now serves as treasurer. When ARA was facing major organizational changes, due to the 2008 recession, Stevens led the change with other board members and CEO Carolyn Carlburg.

Stevens, along with his life partner Dr. Allen “Buddy” Green, also supports the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of London.

Jackelyn Stitt. Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. Jackie Stitt, RN, has provided a cutting edge medical intervention to prevent the spread of HIV for over three years, mainly to individuals in Hollywood and West Hollywood. Running the Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) program at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Stitt serves over 60 patients per month on average at one of only two L.A. County funded programs.

PEP is a leading intervention in HIV prevention – up to 80 percent effective at preventing HIV seroconversion if taken within 72 hours of exposure. Many patients using PEP services also are using drugs that can lead to risky sexual behaviors; for these patients having access to PEP is essential to prevent contracting HIV.

In addition to overseeing the process and monitoring symptoms and providing general support, Stitt also links PEP patients with other programs and services within the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and to outside agencies that help the patient to reduce future risk of HIV infection.

Matthew Zavala, C.I.T.Y. X1. Zavala has volunteered at C.I.T.Y. x1 events over the past year and is one of the up-and-coming leaders not just amongst his peers, but in the LGBTQ community as a whole.

Zavala’s resume begins with his volunteer work at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Color in Common Youth Group. There he learned how to mobilize young people, organize safe sex workshops and activities, interact with the community and lead by example. The group hosted a variety of prevention activities for local at-risk youth that included field trips, trainings, community outreach and educational workshops.

Zavala caught the eye of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which hired him earlier this year. There he helps coordinate youth programming and was chosen to attend the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in New Orleans in September. Zavala is also pursuing his A.A. Degree at Los Angeles City College.

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World AIDS Day – A Day to Remember

December 2, 2013 by admin

world aids day 2As we are honored to do every year on World AIDS Day, Alliance for Housing and Healing placed flowers on the 150 plaques that are embedded in the sidewalks along Santa Monica Boulevard in the heart of West Hollywood. Each plaque is engraved with one or more names of those we lost to AIDS. These cherished loved ones are not forgotten and the brass plaques serve as a public memorial.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, almost 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of AIDS. World AIDS Day asks us to remember those who have died and those who are working on the front lines to find a cure.

If you would like to learn more about the West Hollywood Memorial Walk, click here. If you would like to make a donation in memory of someone special, click here.

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