CENTER FOR WOMEN & HIV ADVOCACY CELEBRATES FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY
“Even though I came from a background where women do not have the same opportunity as men, I have found that I can open up and become empowered. I have realized that it is never too late to do anything you have a passion for. I feel even more beautiful and confident now than when I was in my 20s or 30s.”
These are the words of one of the many participants in the Center for Women and HIV Advocacy, which celebrates its first year anniversary in February.
Since its founding, the Center has become a pivotal component of HIV Law Project’s public policy advocacy efforts on issues important to women living with HIV/AIDS. In just a year’s time, the Center women have made significant progress and achieved concrete results. “We are extremely proud of these brave, passionate, and dedicated women,” said Tracy L. Welsh, executive director at HIV Law Project.
The Center was created to respond to the unmet needs of women living with HIV/AIDS and to help build a national movement that will shape HIV/AIDS policy for women within the United States. The Center builds upon HIV Law Project’s highly successful advocacy training program for women living with HIV/AIDS and expands upon our policy analysis and advocacy efforts regarding issues affecting HIV-positive women. Through legal education, advocacy training, and community outreach, the Center empowers HIV-positive women by giving them the tools to organize and the skills to educate each other, public officials, journalists, and the general public, on issues important to them, their families, and the communities in which they live.
The Center is currently working directly with women living with HIV/AIDS in New York City. Through various technological tools and coalition building, the Center anticipates expanding the parameters of its current work in 2008 to focus on both New York State and national HIV policies affecting women, including special issues affecting immigrants.
Despite the numerous barriers for native-born and immigrant women living with HIV/AIDS in United States, there is no doubt that the Center women are up to the task of creating real change. This past year, the Center’s steering committee underwent intensive advocacy and media training, conducted policy research on three core issues important to HIV-positive women, and launched a robust campaign around the issue of sex education in New York schools.
Campaign activities included a 311 initiative utilizing New York City’s hotline to encourage New Yorkers to voice their opinion on sex education; advocacy trips to Albany to meet with and educate state legislators; reaching more than 1000 people through community education and outreach sessions, and an email action alert and postcard initiatives, which collected more than 700 signed postcards that were sent to educate State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Mayor Bloomberg on the importance of sex education.
“What is truly unique and inspiring is that these women, all of whom are HIV-positive, women of color, including three immigrants, are the driving force behind the Center’s initiatives. They conduct the research, go into their communities, do the analysis, make the decisions, and coordinate the campaigns. This is as grassroots as you can get and it works,” said Ms. Welsh.
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