Alliance 2022 Impact Update

2022 Impact Update “Joining Alliance for Positive Change has been life-affirming.

Alliance helped me find my purpose and become the best version of myself that I can possibly be. Alliance is a sanctuary.”

—GABRIELLE ROBY, ALLIANCE PARTICIPANT AND PEER PROGRAM GRADUATE

IN 2022, ALLIANCE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE CONSISTENTLY PROVIDED A PLACE OF WELCOME AND OPPORTUNITY FOR LOW-INCOME NEW YORKERS LIVING WITH HIV AND OTHER CHRONIC HEALTH CONDITIONS—DESPITE THE MANY CHALLENGES OF THESE TIMES. The communities we partner with—primarily people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ people— have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic, healthcare inequities, economic turmoil, and other adversities.

Alliance has stood with our community every step of the way—delivering on the promise of positive change with services and resources that equip people to navigate systemic inequities, access quality healthcare, and attain well-being.

We support each person’s aspirations for positive change through care coordination; treatment adherence support; HIV, hepatitis C, and STI counseling, testing, and referral; expedited linkages to medical care; harm reduction and recovery support; mental health services; supportive housing; housing placement; and more.

Our work addresses urgent issues: the opioid overdose crisis…attacks on lifesaving harm reduction services…a dangerously inequitable and underresourced healthcare system…hunger, housing insecurity, and lack of economic opportunity.

When COVID-19 struck NYC in March 2020, Alliance’s superb staff went into overdrive—

ramping up telehealth and other virtual services, making weekly check-in calls to our 6,000 core participants, and ensuring that all 800 people in our Pharmacy Access Program had uninterrupted access (via home delivery) to their HIV medications and other prescriptions.

We maintained lifesaving in-person services like overdose prevention and safe syringe services, with guidance from local public health authorities.

On World AIDS Day 2020, we resumed some in-person services and by early 2022 had fully ramped up a combination of in-person and virtual services based on each participant’s preferences.

In 2023, we continue innovating and adapting to make sure every member of our Alliance family has the support to advance along their chosen pathway to positive change.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP!

ALLEN ZWICKLER

Board Chair

SHAREN I. DUKE

Executive Director/CEO

Rising to the challenges of these times, Alliance for Positive Change lives up to our name in so many ways…

Addressing Food Insecurity Our Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) are a lifeline for food-insecure New Yorkers living with HIV and other chronic illnesses. Nutritious food helps our participants stabilize their health and focus on their positive change goals. Food prices rose every month in 2022, so we’re working to expand our FNS program, to be sure our participants have enough to eat and nutritious foods that support their health.

11,500+ meals 1,500+ pantry bags with fresh and shelf-stable foods

2,400+ food vouchers

Innovating for Economic Mobility Alliance has leveraged three decades of expertise in Peer training and Peer-delivered services to launch an independent workforce development innovation called Path to Jobs.

This career readiness and job placement organization for New Yorkers who have been excluded from economic opportunity kicked off with a $1M startup grant from Representative Carolyn Maloney, Senator Charles Schumer, and the US Department of Labor; a $300K NYS AIDS Institute grant; and a $315K grant from Affinity Legacy.

Alliance continues our signature Peer training and paid internships, connecting our Peer graduates with Path to Jobs for job placement opportunities.

350+ people affected by HIV, hepatitis C, and

substance use received Peer training, followed by paid Peer internships conducting prevention and harm reduction

30%+ of Alliance’s full-time staff are former Peers Upping Our Advocacy Game As a leading HIV and health organization, Alliance is active on over a dozen local, state, and national coalitions to push for equitable resources that promote the health of people living with HIV, people who use drugs, and other historically underserved communities.

We advocate for more Overdose Prevention Centers, expanded housing for people living with HIV, and paid positions for Peer workers

in health and community organizations. We successfully pushed our government partners to include community-based organizations like Alliance in New York’s COVID-19 response.

And we continue our fight to protect Medicaid pharmacy benefits and the healthcare safety net in NYS to ensure that proposed Medicaid changes do not pit quality care against organizational sustainability.

ALLIANCE IS A COMMITTED ALLY AND FIERCE ADVOCATE FOR OUR COMMUNITY.

Taking Our Harm Reduction Impact to the Next Level Alliance is a welcoming community for everyone—people who use drugs, people exploring or new to recovery from drug use, and people deeply engaged in their recovery journey.

+ WE PROMOTE the dignity, health, and

safety of people who use drugs by providing overdose prevention tools and training, a Syringe Service Program, and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT).

+ WE DISTRIBUTE thousands of harm

reduction kits containing fentanyl test strips, Narcan/Naloxone, safer sex materials, and other resources so people who use drugs can protect themselves and others.

+ WE SUPPORT the journey of people

entering or sustaining recovery from substance use by offering multiple pathways: outpatient drug treatment services; our Peer-led recovery community; and recovery supports like counseling, mentoring, support groups, relapse prevention, and Peer training.

8,000+

New Yorkers engaged in harm reduction services

192,000+ sterile syringes distributed 1,400+ individuals trained in

life-saving overdose response

8 in 10

substance use treatment program participants remained actively engaged in treatment after 90 days

In 2022, Alliance received federal recognition of our effectiveness when the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded us a major grant to expand our opioid treatment and harm reduction services. Over the next five years, across Alliance’s six community centers, we’ll provide hundreds of New Yorkers with MAT, recovery supports, and overdose prevention and reversal services to help turn the tide on New York’s opioid crisis.

Deepening Our DEI Commitment Founded at the height of the HIV epidemic to serve diverse communities, Alliance has always prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion. Even so, we’re well aware that we can do more and better. In early 2022, after a diligent search for the right partner, we began working with a DEI consulting firm to guide us through an organizational DEI assessment and capacity-building process that will help us more fully enact our equity values. Stay tuned for updates as this work unfolds.

More Impact Highlights + COMPREHENSIVE CARE + TREATMENT ADHERENCE COORDINATION We helped 4,110 people living with HIV and other chronic conditions address their multifaceted needs. 44% were HIV+, 39% identified as active substance users or in recovery, and 43% were unhoused and/or needed housing assistance.

+ HIV AND HEP C TESTING

We tested 976 people and connected 100% of those testing positive to medical care within 30 days.

+ HEALTHCARE ACCESS We rapidly connected 1,434 New Yorkers with health insurance and medical care.

Personalized coaching enabled 1,080 HIV+ people to stay on track with their medication.

Over 95% achieved a durable undetectable viral load.

+ LINKAGE TO CARE

Intensive outreach to find 793 HIV+ New Yorkers who were disconnected from medical care resulted in locating 454 individuals (57%), and successfully re-engaging 87 people in lifesaving health services.

To have Alliance be here in the middle of the pandemic, helping people like me, and reaching out to those of us in the shadows, is worth its weight in gold. When so many doors were closed, Alliance was open. When calls went unanswered and needs ignored, Alliance responded. This means everything.”

—LUIS VIERA, ALLIANCE PARTICIPANT AND PEER PROGRAM GRADUATE

+ ALLIANCE’S PELHAM

GRAND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING FACILITY 93% of HIV+ residents are virally suppressed. 27% are employed, in school, and/or receiving job training.

Join Alliance in bringing even more positive change in 2023 by becoming a supporter today!

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Allen Zwickler, Chair Anita Venkiteswaran, Vice Chair Robert Shepardson, Treasurer Maabo Kludze, Secretary Benjamin Eckhardt Stephen Gass Jennifer Gordon Nick Holmes Andres Nieto Laillah Rice William Toler Sharen I. Duke, Executive Director/CEO

Many thanks to our growing circle of donors, funders, and partners. + View our partnerships + Learn about our strong financial standing Photos: David Nager/Alliance

64 W 35th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001 (212) 645-0875 | questions@alliance.nyc | www.alliance.nyc/donate

www.alliance.nyc

thealliancenyc

@thealliance_nyc

@thealliance_nyc