September 29, 2006

THE NEW YORK CITY COMMUNITIES OF COLOR (NYCCOCHAC) CONVENES SECOND BLOCKBUSTER COMMUNITY SUMMIT

The Executive Director of the NYC Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, Chelsea Rudder and Councilmembers Robert Jackson (D-M-7) lent their steadfast support to the AIDS community at the NYCCOCHAC summit last week.

On September 20th, the New York City Communities of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition (NYCCOCHAC) convened its second summit at the offices of the Community Resource Exchange (CRE), the master contractor for the NYC Council's 2005 HIV/AIDS in Communities of Color Initiative. Far more than 100 community members from NYC's AIDS community, legislators, and supporters attended this gathering to get an overview about the impact that that $2.6 million dollars had within hard-hit communities. Half a dozen organizations talked about the work they did, and half a dozen others displayed materials they worked hard to produce. Of course, all were excited to take a peak at how this year's allocation will potentially be awarded.

The Summit opened with CRE giving an overview of the work accomplished by the 50 organizations that received a little over $40,000 to engage in 5 distinct activities: community awareness, community mapping, social marketing, web-based initiatives, and conferences, forums and health fairs. The projects aimed to reach women of color and men of color who have sex with men. This overview highlighted important aspects of the detailed report written by CRE - Report on the 2006 NYCCOCHAC Initiative - who thoroughly documented the work of the previous year.

Councilmember Letitica James (D-Bk-35) electrified the group.

The Executive Director of the NYC Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, Chelsea Rudder attended and spoke to the community, providing the Caucus's continual steadfast support for the initiative. NYC Councilmember Letitica James (D-Bk-35) electrified the group, challenging them to engage in bigger and better, more stubborn and steadier, virulently vocal activism on behalf of the communities they serve. Councilmembers Robert Jackson (D-M-7), Leroy Comrie (D-Q-27), and Gale Brewer (D-M-6) each thanked the community for their efforts in engaging and working with the City Council to provide needed resources to communities, and they praised the work they were able to witness during this summit.

While many groups saw this as a chance to network with and learn from their colleagues, most were anxiously awaiting to hear about proposed 3-year Special HIV/AIDS Project of Regional Significance (SHAPRS - pronounced shay-purz). As many Update readers already know, SHAPRS would infuse programmatic resources into three of the highest AIDS morbidity and mortality areas in three boroughs within NYC and to hard-hit populations outside of these DPHO areas. The full unveiling of this project is expected by mid-October in the form of an RFP out to the community.

If anyone would like to know more about SHAPRS and/or to get updates about NYCCOCHAC activities, please send an email to terri smith-caronia, Director of NYC Public Policy at smith-caronia@housingworks.org.

To request a copy of the Report on the 2006 NYCCOCHAC Initiative, call CRE at 212-894-3394.

The Housing Works AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and edited by Diana Scholl, David Thorpe, Christine Campbell, terri smith-caronia and Housing Works staff. Send your feedback, leads and story ideas to d.scholl@housingworks.org.

You can reach us by phone at 212-967-1500 x168, by fax at 212-868-4222, and by email at d.scholl@housingworks.org. Housing Works provides housing, advocacy and services to homeless people living with AIDS and HIV. Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

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