AIDS United has awarded grants totaling $100,000 to five community-based organizations to help end HIV stigma and discrimination while building leadership among Hispanic/Latinx people living with HIV in a new pilot initiative.
Hispanic/Latinx People Organizing Positively, with generous support from Gilead Sciences, seeks to reach diverse and intersectional communities of Hispanic/Latinx people who are living with and working with communities who are vulnerable to HIV.
“As a Latinx person living with HIV, the incredible amount of support from the community to move this pilot forward has been a testament to community-driven and MIPA-centered approaches,” said Julio J. Fonseca, AIDS United senior program manager. “Each of the five grantees represents a unique project and intersection. We are excited to see the outcomes.”
Meet the grantees of this pilot initiative:
- Intercambios Puerto Rico (Fajardo, Puerto Rico)
- The Wall Las Memorias Project (Los Angeles, California)
- Translatin@ Coalition (Los Angeles, California)
- Arianna’s Center Puerto Rico (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- Mariposas Sin Fronteras (Tucson, Arizona)
This pilot approach has been informed by community recommendations from a three-day think tank that took place last year. The gathering of 12 Hispanic/Latinx people living with HIV made concrete recommendations on how to best reach members of the community. After the think tank, a smaller Hispanic/Latinx advisory team supported the grantmaking selection process for this invitation-only pilot.
In 2018, AIDS United took part in meetings with a group of Hispanic/Latinx gay and bisexual+ men who formed the Latinx Gay and Bisexual Men’s HIV Prevention and Treatment Action Coalition. The group’s call to action was to meaningfully support a leadership pipeline for Hispanic/Latinx people by funding training and learning exchanges, creating safe professional development spaces, and creating leadership positions and other jobs for young Hispanic/Latinx gay and bisexual+ men in the HIV sector. AIDS United saw this as an opportunity to examine how to best develop a community-driven response to the HIV epidemic in the Hispanic/ Latinx community.
These new awards are the latest of five, eight-month-long grants made to organizations across the U.S. to develop leadership and support grassroots organizing among people living with HIV around the country.
As we mark National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day today, it is important to note that the Hispanic/Latinx community continues to be disproportionately represented in new HIV incidence. In 2019, 29% of new HIV diagnoses were among Hispanic/Latinx people, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For more information on this initiative, be sure to look out for updates on our blog.
