For Immediate Release – AIDS United Announces AIDSWatch@Home 2025-2026 Grant Recipients
Contact – Miguel A. Ayala, Director of Communications, communications@aidsunited.org
Washington, D.C., January 13, 2026 – AIDS United has selected eight organizations to receive grants of up to $15,000 each for the AIDSWatch@Home 2025-2026 program, aimed at bolstering state-level HIV advocacy efforts, in partnership with efforts to end the HIV epidemic through federal action at AIDSWatch – the largest constituent-led national HIV advocacy event.
The AIDSWatch@Home initiative empowers local organizations to conduct policy trainings and community advocacy events, recognizing that ending the HIV epidemic requires action beyond federal initiatives. This year’s grantees will implement events aligned with their respective state legislative sessions, addressing pressing issues such as protecting the HIV care safety net, prevention funding, LGBTQ+ rights, and state-specific policy priorities.
The selected organizations and their missions are:
Positive Women’s Network-USA (Alabama): Positive Women’s Network – USA is a national membership body of cis and trans women and trans and gender diverse people living with HIV and our allies that exists to strengthen the strategic power of all people living with HIV in the United States. Founded in 2008 by 28 diverse leaders living with HIV, PWN-USA develops a leadership pipeline and policy agenda that applies a gender and racial justice lens to the domestic HIV epidemic grounded in social justice and human rights. This grant funding will be used to support PWN-USA’s Alabama chapter.
Women of Color On the Move (California): Women of Color On the Move is a nonprofit public benefit corporation, which provides a visible force to help educate women about health crises, education, political arenas, and socio-economic issues. Women of Color On The Move has been around since 2014, working with numerous community-based organizations to provide community education to women and to encourage women to commit to helping other women succeed and soar in their responsibilities to themselves, their family, and their community.
NAESM Inc. (Georgia): For more than 30 years, NAESM has prioritized its mission to increase minority populations’ access to free HIV testing, sexually transmitted infections treatment, linkage to care, housing, behavioral and sexual health counseling, transportation, utility, food and clothing assistance and community outreach, and youth empowerment in the Atlanta Metropolitan area and throughout the state of Georgia.
Mobilizing Millennials (Louisiana): Mobilizing Millennials is an organization that offers programming around education and outreach, community engagement, social justice initiatives, and human rights campaigns. Our workshops and seminars cover policy and grassroots advocacy, public speaking and communication, data analysis and visualization, leadership, policy, advocacy, issue-focused, and civic engagement.
FreeState Justice, Inc. (Maryland): FreeState Justice is Maryland’s leading legal nonprofit that envisions a Maryland where all LGBTQ+ people are free to live authentically, with safety, dignity, and respect in all communities throughout the state. Many Marylanders face discrimination daily because of their identities, stopping them from living authentically and making achieving their goals an uphill battle. Through our free legal services, legislative advocacy, and education and outreach programs, FreeState Justice hopes to eliminate these barriers to create a Maryland where truly anyone can thrive.
The Aliveness Project (Minnesota): The Aliveness Project supports Minnesotans living with and at the greatest risk of HIV through transformative resources and direct services. Everything we do shares a single mission that we haven’t strayed from in nearly 40 years: to empower healthy, self-directed lives.
Equality North Carolina Foundation (North Carolina): Equality North Carolina Foundation is the nation’s oldest statewide organization committed to securing rights and protections for the LGBTQ community. We aim to ensure that every North Carolinian sees themselves reflected in this movement, working together to create a safer, more equitable world for all marginalized individuals. Together, we can build a better North Carolina.
My Sistah’s House Memphis (Tennessee): My Sistah’s House is a grassroots, transgender-led organization in Memphis, Tennessee, that provides wraparound services for primarily Black and Brown transgender and non-binary individuals, including safe spaces, emergency shelter, and access to health and social services.
In addition to the monetary grant, each grantee will receive technical assistance from AIDS United to plan and execute their events.
AIDS United has a longstanding commitment to supporting community-based organizations in their efforts to combat HIV. With this year’s grantees, AIDS United hopes to educate and mobilize local communities, fostering long-term advocacy for policies that promote health equity and support individuals living with HIV.
To learn more about AIDSWatch@Home, visit www.aidsunited.org/aidswatch-at-home/.
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About AIDS United: The mission of AIDS United is to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. Through its core pillars of strategic grant-making, capacity building and technical assistance and policy and advocacy, AIDS United has delivered more than $160 million in direct funding and leveraged an additional $184 million to strengthen the capacity of communities and organizations responding to the HIV epidemic nationwide.
AIDS United’s grantees and members serve communities representing more than 96% of the U.S. HIV epidemic. The organization has supported more than 600 organizations across 43 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
For more information, visit www.aidsunited.org.