 The
Latino Commission on AIDS is a nonprofit membership
organization dedicated to fighting the spread
of HIV/AIDS in the Latino community.
In
response to the critical, unmet need for HIV prevention and
care for Latinos, a coalition of Latino leaders founded the
agency in 1990. The Commission realizes its mission by spearheading
health advocacy for Latinos, promoting HIV education, developing
model prevention programs for high-risk communities, and by
building capacity in community organizations. Through its
extensive network of member organizations and community leaders,
the Commission works to mobilize an effective Latino community
response to the health crisis created by HIV/AIDS. Since 1995,
the Commission has steadily expanded its services outside
New York to meet the emerging needs of Latino communities
in more than 40 States and Puerto Rico.
The Commission is dedicated to resolving the HIV crisis in
the Latino community, where social stigma, poverty, language
barriers, immigration status fears, and access to care deter
testing and increase the infection rate. Over 200,000 Latinos
in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are living with HIV/AIDS. The
fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., Latinos constitute
14% of the U.S. population but account for over 20% of the
AIDS cases.
The Commission’s public health model encompasses four
core and complementary services provided to Latino communities:
health education, HIV prevention, capacity building, and advocacy.
All services are offered in Spanish by a culturally diverse
bilingual staff of health, education and business professionals.
Health Education
Knowledge of HIV risk and treatment options remains a significant
barrier to preventing the spread of the disease among Latinos
and helping Latinos with HIV/AIDS to stay healthy. The Commission
is strongly committed to ongoing Spanish language health education
and strategic media campaigns that educate the general public
about HIV treatment and prevention, as well as other health
disparities affecting Latino communities. For over a decade
the Commission has provided the only Spanish language HIV
treatment education available in the U.S. and continues to
provide this training to frontline healthcare professionals,
peer educators and public health officials. Our training professionals
continue providing workshops, institutes and national conferences
on many HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention topics to Latino
immigrants, community leaders, healthcare workers, and people
living with HIV/AIDS.
HIV Prevention
All programs at the Commission are guided by our mission to
prevent disease and promote health in Latino communities.
The agency has a long history of developing and implementing
model prevention and risk reduction interventions in low-income
Latino communities, including the only initiative in the U.S.
to mobilize communities of faith for HIV interventions. The
Commission has worked with more than 75 churches of many denominations
to build ministries of health in high risk communities and
to initiate prevention programs for women and adolescents.
Another thrust of the prevention program has been working
with grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations
to develop and implement innovative prevention interventions.
For the past decade, the Commission has reached the wider
Latino community with HIV testing, counseling and referrals
to healthcare and housing through pioneering programs based
on social networking models that reach Latinos at highest
risk of HIV.
Capacity Building Assistance
Finding solutions to the health disparities impacting Latinos
can best come from within Latino communities. The Commission
has always been committed to building the capacity of local
institutions – community organizations, health departments,
healthcare providers, churches, and LGBT groups – to
provide local disease prevention, healthcare and health education
services in Latino communities. In conjunction with the Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention and other government
agencies, the Commission is strengthening community organizations
and health departments from Maine to New Jersey (and Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands) that provide HIV prevention interventions
to Latinos. Another ongoing effort has been helping LGBT groups
to effectively operate as non-profit organizations offering
social support and prevention services in high-risk Latino
communities.
Advocacy & Awareness
The HIV crisis can only be resolved with awareness at every
level of society and through organizing communities to advocate
for increased resources and access to healthcare. The Commission’s
hallmark awareness initiative is National Latino AIDS Awareness
Day (www.NLAAD.org). Annually on October 15, the Commission
mobilizes more than 350 community organizations in over 250
cities across the country to host HIV testing, education and
prevention initiatives. Advocacy has long been a core competency
of the agency. The Commission is dedicated to mobilizing Latino
groups and community leaders, building broad based consensus,
and advocating at all levels of government. In addition, advocacy
training is provided to grassroots organizations throughout
the U.S.
 Click
here to see a listing of our staff
The Latino Commission on AIDS is supported
by the following:
Government
Ryan White Title I
United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The New York State Department of Health (AIDS Institute)
Foundations
The New York City AIDS Fund (New York Community Trust)
The Altman Foundation
The Public Welfare Foundation
United Way of New York City
The Henry van Ameringen Foundation
The Hispanic Federation
The Charles Lawrence Keith and Clara Miller Foundation
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
The JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Corporations
NBC 4HD
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Ortho Biotech
Con Edison
Abbott Laboratories
Agouron Pharmaceuticals
AOL/Time Warner
Boeringer Ingelheim
El Diario/la prensa
Telemundo
Fidelis Care of New York
Glaxo Smith Kline
Goya Foods
Health Plus PHS
Health First
HIP of New York
Market Place Media, Inc.
Partners in Health
Roche Diagnostics
Serono Laboratories
Shionogi, Inc.
WABC
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