Our mission is to educate, support, empower and advocate for Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities—particularly A&PIs living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS. |
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IN OUR OCTOBER UPDATE:
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Wednesday, September 28, our Care Services Department gathered clients together for the annual HIV Care Client Retreat. The day started with an early lunch at Fisherman's Wharf, followed up by a double-decker open-roof bus tour of San Francisco and sites north. Clients and staff scrambled to make sure that they were on the top deck for the tour. The bus wound its way through some of San Francisco's most picturesque areas, including the Wharf area, Ghiradelli Square, the Marina and Cow Hollow, and the Palace of Fine Arts. After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, the first stop was Sausalito. It was a warm and beautiful day, so the group stopped into Lappert's for ice cream and shakes. From there, the bus made its way to Mount Tamalpais and hugged the curved road as we traveled to Muir Woods. The group was in awe seeing the tall trees and took a stroll through the redwoods. "I enjoyed Muir Woods," one client said. "I found it peaceful, and I wished we had more time to spend there." After returning to the city, the group enjoyed each other's company, as well as a superb dinner of quail, lobster, fish, noodles and dessert. Another client said, "It was nice to be outside of San Francisco for a whole day and to spend it with my peers. I prefer these all-day retreats, and I got to know others in our group." |
Our program targeting young trans women of color, or "T-LISH" was one of the many programs that ended in September. Funded through a subcontract from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, T-Lish was one of many successful and robust HIV prevention programs targeting youth of color nationally that were not refunded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s never fun to say goodbye to a program that you love, but somehow T-Lish managed to bring its usual charm and flair to their going away gala. Many of the group members showed up early to help set up. Throughout the day they transformed the Banyan Room into a wonderful ballroom, complete with giant hand-made bows on each chair, a disco ball themed photo area, all topped off with a chocolate fondue fountain.
At the end of the evening each of the T-Lish participants were given a special, custom-made pin to wear. “These are your sisters” they were told, “whenever you see someone wearing this pin you know to look out for each other.” Hugs were exchanged as all of the participants who received their pins posed for a photo with all of the T-Lish Staff, both past and present, as well as community members who had spoken that evening. And as the chairs were stacked and the tables put away, the T-Lish girls collectively planned where they were going to go next that evening. After all, this was just the beginning. TRANS:THRIVE will continue serving transgender youth through its many programs and collaborations. |
In addition to regular trainings provided to staff, our Care Services Department hosts "Lunch & Learns" for staff to get the latest information on HIV treatment, prevention and health benefits. The information provided in these sessions can be used with clients and shared with the broader community. Living with HIV may have gotten easier. On September 26, 2011, A&PI Wellness Center staff had a brown bag lunch with Dr. Ruben Gamundi of Gilead Sciences, Inc., who gave staff a presentation about a new once-a-day HIV pill called Complera (kom-PLEH-rah). Approved for release on August 10, 2011 by the Food and Drug Administration, the pill is 30% smaller than Atripla – the only once-a-day pill prior to Complera’s release. The pill contains three medicines: tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine, the components of Truvada, and rilpivirine (Edurant). The pill was developed through a collaboration of Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals (formerly Tibotec Pharmaceuticals). The medication is indicated for use as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in HIV-positive individuals 18 and over who have not been on any HIV antiretroviral medication ("antiretroviral treatment-naïve adults"). For more information, please visit www.complera.com. |
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FOLSOM STREET FAIR
The stage featured five full length demonstrations of "BD/SM Sessions", featuring several different techniques including single-tail whip/caning, spanking, paddling, dragontail whipping, flogging and Japanese-style rope bondage. Throughout the day, hundreds of fair goers stopped to watch the different demonstrations. "Putting on a show like this is a great way to do outreach because you have hundreds of people stopping and watching. This gives us an opportunity to talk about our prevention programs, our HIV testing services and Wellness Clinic." The outreach for the HIV testing services that were available at Folsom were a hit as well. Having a demonstration stage also drew a record number of people who wanted to find out their HIV status. This year, we administered 40 HIV tests, so many in fact that we ran out of tests! |
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Our newest health education program will be launching next week! Project 4PLAY will concentrate on HIV and substance use prevention for 18-24 year old queer and/or drug using A&PI men in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda Counties. The program is an expansion of previous collaboration between A&PI Wellness Center and Asian American Recovery Services. "What we found in the last cycle as well through our data was that those 18-25 engaged in higher risk behaviors than their older counterparts," John Lam of AARS. "Now the program is expanded to four counties, all A&PI ethnicities, with a narrower age range." In the last month, the 4PLAY Team held a series of Community Forums to talk about the new project and form collaborations with other agencies. "Surprisingly, people who don't particularly do HIV prevention came to the forums," said Denmark Diaz, also of AARS. "A lot of them were curious to see the data and find out more about what's happening in the community. We were able to also form partnerships with a few community organizations and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department." The first sessions of Project 4PLAY will be happening in Alameda County, which has seen an alarming spike in new HIV cases among A&PIs in the last few years. To kick-off the program, the 4PLAY Team hosted a social in Union City on October 13, and will formally start the program on October 20. |
A&PI WELLNESS CENTER STAFF PRESENTING AT NATIONAL CONFERENCES
Sapna Mysoor, Banyan Tree Project program manager, will be presenting best practices and lessons learned from our social marketing and social networking campaigns at APHA. The session, 4093.0 Deconstructing Difference and Disrupting Discrimination: Social Etiologies and Opportunities for Change, features other presenters talking about alcohol use, stigma, hepatitis B, and gender differences. Sapna will concentrate on how the campaign is used to address HIV/AIDS stigma among A&PIs.
Down the hall, Saurabh Bajaj, Director of Development will be hosting a roundtable called Throwing Good Money after Good: Making the Case for Investing in Development. Attendees will learn new fundraising strategies, map out the needs of their agencies, practice strategies to make the case for investing in development, and take home concrete steps to their respective organizations. Developing and Fostering HIV Prevention Leadership Pipelines for Queer Youth of Color will be presented by Ben Cabangun and Mike Nguyen on Friday at 4:30. This workshop will help attendees develop a Youth Leadership Academy. The Academy serves as a pipeline to spawn and nurture young community leaders by allowing them to critically contribute in the planning, development, and implementation of health education teaching and research in urban settings. The last session, presented by Saurabh and executive director Lance Toma, is called Crisis Communication: What to do when Disaster Strikes. This workshop will explore the most effective communication tools and strategies to use in crisis situations. Lance and Saurabh will outline the components of a strong crisis communications strategy, and identify common pitfalls and hurdles when navigating a crisis. This workshop is on Saturday. CHECK OUT THE PRESENTATIONS! American Public Health Association Annual Meeting United States Conference on AIDS |
IN THE NEWS: GOVERNOR BROWN SIGNS DATA DISAGGREGATION BILL On October 9, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 1088 requiring the accurate collection of information on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. Current law requires that some Asian and Pacific Islander groups be disaggregated, such as Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean or Samoan. The new law addresses growth in new and emerging Asian and Pacific Islander groups that would not have otherwise been counted properly. The California Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing will now need to use the same disaggregation categories as the US Census. This news follows the announcement by US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' on new standards for collecting and reporting data on race and ethnicity nationwide. |
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It was a delight for us to work with such an amazing, committed grassroots group that has raised $1.25 million over the past two decades. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Real Bad in 2012! |
We are so excited! Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center is hosting our third annual Shut Up & Sing! Come join this new karaoke tradition, and bid on your friends, coworkers and frenemies to sing, all to benefit our many health services. SAVE THE DATE! Buy your ticket! |
RED HOT + VIDEO CONTEST
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With over 40 participants, all dressed to impress, the evening played out as more of a celebration of the T-Lish spirit than a going away party. Throughout the night respected members of the transgender community took to the stage to encourage the T-Lish youth to stay close. “This is not the end, this is just the beginning,” one of the speakers told the crowd. “If you stick together nothing can stop you.”
A&PI Wellness Center's five booths were one of the most popular attractions of Folsom Street Fair this year, thanks to a demonstration booth coordinated by Danny Nguyen, Men's Program Specialist. It was the first demonstration booth hosted by A&PI Wellness Center in nearly a decade. "The first year I went to the Folsom Street Fair, I remember A&PI Wellness Center having a stage hosted by Tita Aida and some leather boys," says Danny. "When I was a youth program volunteer here, we would actively raise funds at Folsom as well. Since then, there really hasn't been a presence of A&PI or trans BD/SM players at Folsom, and the larger community doesn't get to see A&PI sexuality differently from mainstream perceptions. That's why I wanted to bring the stage back."
This year, A&PI Wellness Center staff will be presenting workshops at two prestigious national conferences. The first conference is the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Washington DC at the end of October. The second conference is the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in Chicago in November..jpg)
Staff will be presenting at five different sessions this year in Chicago at USCA. On Day 1 of USCA, A&PI Wellness Center, in collaboration with 
Danny Nguyen and Clay Ngo, the staff behind the new [Un]spoken Shorts series are working on a new video short for the ![[UN]SPOKEN Shorts](http://www.apiwc.org/pics/unspoken.gif)