December 1, 2006

GROUNDBREAKING WOMEN'S CLINIC

In the honor of Phyllis Sharp- just one among the 80,000 New Yorkers lost to AIDS whose names will be read in City Hall Park today- Housing Works symbolically broke ground on our first-ever Women's Health Center in downtown Brooklyn.

People living with HIV/AIDS, service providers and community leaders crowded together in the pale blue basement (the Center's future home) to celebrate new resources to meet longstanding community needs and to mark yet another milestone in the fight to end AIDS.

"Of the hundred thousand New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, 76% of them are African-American, and the fastest growing population of newly infected are women of color. Obviously, a women's health clinic is critically needed," said NYC Councilmember Letitia James (D-Bk-35). "Someone once said women should mind their own business. This is women minding their business- their healthcare business."

From the ground up, women have been involved in creating the new Housing Works facility and its innovative programming. The Women's Health Center and Clinic will provide multi-disciplinary services from medical, dental and nursing care to psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, social work, and case management services. The approach will be holistic, providing integrated health care services by and for women.

"Women have always been underrepresented and underserved in treatment programs - not just AIDS, but all programs, like substance abuse programs, for a variety of reasons. For example, concerns about safety - physical and emotional safety. This Center will be a place where women can feel safe and get good care, and we'll need their help to make it everything it can be," said Lourdes Quinones, Director of Quality Improvement at Housing Works.

"Although many brave women living with HIV/AIDS have spoken out for recognition, the vast majority of HIV/AIDS care and services remain tailored to the needs of men," said Marcelo Venegas-Pizarro, MD, Senior Vice President, Health Services & Chief Medical Officer at Housing Works. "Women- and in particular minority women- face not just a disparity in access to care but gross inequality. We want to help change that."

Linney Smith, Senior Vice President for Prevention and Services at Housing Works "breaks ground" with Ingrid Floyd, Executive Director, Iris House, and NYC Councilmember Letitia James.

Angela Burt-Murray, Editor in Chief of Essence magazine, echoed the other speakers' harrowing stories and statistics about HIV/AIDS among African-American women. "This is an emergency," she said. "Essence will be involved in this emergency, and with this facility."

Burt-Murray donned a fetching white hard hat to shovel dirt and sand across the old tile floor that will be torn out to build the bedrock of the new Women's Clinic. She was joined by Kwame Canty, staff for Representative Edolophus Towns (D-NY), Ingrid Floyd, President of Iris House, Rev. Errol Harvey of St. Augustine Episcopal Church and Housing Works board member, Charles King, Housing Works President, Tamara Oyola-Santiago, Executive Director Citi-Wide Harm Reduction, Dr. Vaty Poitevien, Medical Director 13th Street ADHC and Diane Williams, Housing Works board member and former client.

"As an HIV-positive black woman living in Brooklyn, my heart is filled with joy today," said Jennifer Steele, addressing the crowd with a full voice. "This clinic will help break the cycle of women being caregivers to everyone but themselves."