August 22, 2008
DRESS FOR SUCCESS
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Activists hold up a Housing Works shirt while demanding housing for people with AIDS at the IAC |
The Update generally stays focused on budget cuts, protests, funding battles and other assorted AIDS-related news, so we don't often have a chance to tout Housing Works popular Thrift Shops, which earn some $12 million a year for Housing Works services for poor people living with HIV/AIDS. However, the recently relaunched Thrift Shops website ShopHousingWorks.com now sells incredible AIDS activist T-shirts and tote bags produced by Print Positive.
Print Positive started as a silk-screening project to teach job skills to Housing Works Job Training Program participants. It was so successful that Housing Works transformed Print Positive into its own business to raise funds for Housing Works services. Print Positive still employs our Job Training Program participants and graduates. When you buy one of our activists Ts or tote bags, you're not only sending a message that the fight to end HIV isn't over, you're helping people living with the disease.
For $15, you can purchase a FIGHT AIDS NOT IRAQ T-shirt (which sold out at the International AIDS Conference two weeks ago!). The Arabic writing reads "God is Great," the message on the Iraqi flag until the flag was changed in 2008. Also on sale are THE WORLD HAS AIDS t-shirts ($15) and RETAIL ACTIVIST tote bags ($12), available in black, pink and blue. Bring a donation to any Housing Works Thrift Shop in your a tote bag and get 10 percent off same-day Thrift Shops purchases (click here for locations). More activist gear will be online later in the year.