December 15, 2006
NEW FIRE FOR THE NEW YEAR
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Christine Campbell, the new HW Director of National Organizing and Advocacy in Washington |
It's been two years since Housing Works opened our first full-time national advocacy office in Washington, DC - and eleven years since we opened a full-time state advocacy operation up in Albany.
This month, we're happy to announce we've added two great new activist leaders into the hot-burning mix: Christine Campbell will take over as our Director of National Organizing and Advocacy in Washington and Charles Long will work as New York State Organizer in Albany.
And there's nothing but good news about Robert Cordero - our hard-working DC guy has an important new post in New York City, directing development and government contracts work for the whole organization.
Ms. Campbell goes (back) to Washington
Cordero helped pop the corks at our grand opening in DC in 2004. Larry Bryant came on a year later as national field organizer after he teamed with HW staff and AIDS activists from all over the country to kick off the Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA).
Since day one, the Housing Works DC team has helped people living with HIV/AIDS from across the country come to the nation's capital to rally, protest and even meet politely with elected officials and staff. And we've worked with PLWHAs, students and AIDS groups all around the country to boost local activism and build the national grassroots networks that can really make political change happen.
This week Christine Campbell heads home to DC (where she's kept her seat in the choir at Holy Comforter St. Cyprian Church on Capitol Hill) to strengthen these efforts with her skills and experience.
Campbell's been in supportive housing for 22 years, AIDS housing for eleven years, and most recently served as the board chair for the National AIDS Housing Coalition. She ran housing programs at DC's Whitman-Walker Clinic for seven years, and most recently served as Deputy Director of Technical Assistance and Program Evaluation at Bailey House, Inc. in New York City.
And as someone who's been in it for the long haul, she's hoping to utilize her personal values and her academic training - she's got a Master's degree in organizational development and most recently taught at New York University's Wagner School of Public Administration - to help local activists get strong and stay strong.
"I want to help build a movement that's fierce and powerful but that's also sustainable," Campbell said. "AIDS is a crisis, but we do not have to operate in crisis mode every minute of every day. We need a solid foundation to make a lasting impact. We need to help people avoid burnout, spread the load and broaden coalitions so people living with HIV/AIDS can do this work in a healthy way."
She's been helping small AIDS service providers in communities of color all across the country survive and thrive while running Bailey House's AIDS Services Organizational Management Institute and Fiscal Infrastructure TA programs. And she's looking forward to knitting some of those groups into the C2EA network while helping current C2EA activists and state chapters take it to the next level and keep it there.
And some of that advocacy attention needs to focus on AIDS housing, including the federal Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program. "HOPWA's like Ryan White," Campbell says. "It was put in place on an emergency basis and while it does a lot of good it has a lot of weaknesses. Folks can't survive with housing assistance that only kicks in for half the year," she says, referring to the twenty-one week for some HOPWA aid.
"On AIDS housing, on HIV prevention, treatment and care - the real answer to unmet needs is to speak up about what's not there and fight for comprehensive programs nationwide. We've got to build enough power that we don't have to settle for less."
Sounds like the right attitude to us....
Mr. Long goes to Albany
 Charles Long reads the names of those we've lost. His first World AIDS Day as Housing Works staff. |
And there's more good attitude three hundred miles north, where Charles Long has made the move from Chicago-based youth activist to Albany-based multi-issue organizer. Young, Black, queer and HIV-positive, with a demonstrated commitment to social justice, Long is hot to take on the challenges of statewide organizing while learning from the seasoned pros at Housing Works.
"I want to do advocacy that's centered on clients - and I'm fired up for direct action when it's the right move," says Long. "Being able to work and learn at Housing Works is just right on for me. I've done direct services, I've helped community groups build capacity, but right now it's all about advocacy, and I'm ready for the deep end."
Long was already organizing and agitating with other young MSMs of color during his senior year at Columbia College when he learned he was HIV-positive (on September 11, 2001). Being positive brought new drive and new focus to his social justice work, and he began work on HIV and STD prevention on Chicago’s South Side (where he's from).
Long has served as a youth case manager in the Ryan White Title IV program at Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center (the Midwest's largest GLBT health center) and assisted minority-serving agencies in Chicago with infrastructure and capacity development through grants from HHS office of Minority Health. He's a C2EA Youth Action Institute graduate and helped organize this year's YAI in Chicago.
Now, he'll be focusing on getting high-priority AIDS issues in front of the new Spitzer administration in Albany and building a statewide C2EA effort in New York. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing, and nowhere I'd rather be doing it," says Long.
Mr. Cordero goes to Brooklyn
Robert Cordero left the New York City Office of AIDS Policy Coordination and the HIV Health and Human Services Planning Council to launch a sustained federal presence for Housing Works during an agonizing stretch of conservative control on Capitol Hill.
Now his title reads "development," but for Cordero, it's still advocacy. In New York and DC he worked to generate the political will that drives policy and funding decisions. Now in Downtown Brooklyn, he's working to channel the flow of funds to where they can do the most good – and playing an important leadership role within Housing Works.
"Beginning with ACT-UP, AIDS activism and advocacy has often been about getting resources to build the systems we need to survive," he says. "To save lives, we've got to build a system of prevention, treatment and services that are so strong we can end AIDS and put ourselves out of business."
Cordero says he'll be helping Campbell and Legislative Counsel Michael Kink as they continue national organizing and advocacy in DC and around the country. "Our good friends on the Hill and around the country will be happy to meet Christine and they'll be knocked out by her talent and drive. It's going to be a pleasure to make those introductions, to help with the transition, and to keep fighting with Housing Works for the good of people living with HIV/AIDS all around the world."