NEW information about our services
Since March of this year, A&PI Wellness Center staff, clients and community members have fought for the inclusion of A&PIs in San Francisco's HIV prevention plan. The City of San Francisco has agreed to form an A&PI HIV health task force charged with developing a long-term action plan to address HIV in A&PI communities. In addition, SFDPH has acknowledged the gap for A&PIs in their current plan, awarding A&PI Wellness Center $150,000 to provide HIV prevention services to A&PI gay and bisexual men in the coming year. This is a huge step forward for our communities.
We must make adjustments, however, to reflect overall funding reductions due to policy shifts happening at local, state and national levels. To remain relevant, we must increase our HIV testing efforts to support the City's goals and align our programming with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. To meet this challenge we are restructuring our staffing and programming to safeguard our financial sustainability in this new era of HIV prevention.
IMPORTANT FACTS TO BEAR IN MIND:- Our men's and youth programs will NOT be eliminated. Contrary to previous statements, we will no longer be forced to close these vital programs due to a one year extension of our HIV prevention contract with SFDPH and an award of $150,000.
- We will continue to serve the needs of transgender youth. Though our subcontract with AIDS Healthcare Foundation supporting robust transgender youth programming (T-LISH) ends September 30, 2011, we will NOT eliminate services for transgender youth but we will reduce staffing and the frequency of some group activities.
- We are equipped to meet the needs of the transgender community, across all ethnicities. Our HIV prevention services for transgender people of all ethnicities are culturally and linguistically competent, supported by our ethnically diverse TRANS:THRIVE staff and peer leaders in partnership with Instituto Familiar de la Raza, EL/LA and Native American AIDS Project.
- HIV testing will be integrated with our free medical clinic and our health education programs for men, youth and the transgender community. This change will enable us to be more efficient and effective to meet our ambitious goal of administering more than 750 HIV tests to high-risk individuals per year (compared to 450 in past years).
These changes allow A&PI Wellness Center to serve the A&PI and transgender communities in San Francisco while remaining relevant in the new HIV prevention landscape. If you have any questions, please contact Lance Toma, executive director, at 415-292-3420 x355 or lance@apiwellness.org.
Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center (A&PI Wellness Center) is the oldest non-profit HIV/AIDS services organization in North America targeting Asian & Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities. To meet the needs of our clients who are often immigrants or refugees, A&PI Wellness Center's staff speak many Asian languages including: Cantonese, Hawaiian, Hindi, Ilokano, Japanese, Malay, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Visayan.
Free Medical Clinic: A&PI Wellness Center is opening the Wellness Clinic, a free medical clinic serving San Francisco's diverse community in March 2011. The Wellness Clinic provides holistic, high quality, culturally competent and linguistically accessible primary health care, preventative care, and early intervention alongside behavioral health services. Our services are available free-of-charge for low income, uninsured or under-insured San Franciscans without access to health care.
We welcome and accept adults of all sexual orientations, genders, marital status, family configurations and different mental and physical abilities. If you are A&PI and LGBT, our Wellness Clinic will provide you with the comprehensive, compassionate, culturally sensitive care you want and need and can't always get from other health care providers. We seek to deliver quality health care in a caring atmosphere to strengthen our community's health and well-being.
HIV Care Services: A&PI Wellness Center's HIV Care Services provides free and confidential HIV treatment case management, mental health and substance abuse counseling, on-site primary medical and psychiatric care, client and treatment advocacy, and group and individual support to A&PIs living with HIV/AIDS.
Testing Clinic and Health Education: Our HIV/STD Prevention Services reaches youth (straight, queer and questioning), gay and bisexual men, transgender persons through community organizing and outreach, workshops and support groups, peer counseling, and prevention case management.
We offer HIV/STD/Hepatitis testing, support groups, social marketing and health promotion campaigns, community events, internships, and volunteer opportunities.
Capacity Building and Technical Assistance: The Community Development & External Affairs (CDEA) builds HIV prevention capacity in A&PI organizations and communities throughout the United States and its Pacific Territories; conducts community-based research; and trains non-medical service providers in HIV treatment throughout California.
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