ASCNYC - Positive Change Happens Here

PosiTive Change

Happens Here

ASCNYC promotes Positive Change for New Yorkers seeking health, recovery, and a better future as they navigate life with HIV and other chronic health conditions.

At ASCNYC, Positive Change takes many forms. We help our clients overcome addiction, access medical care to get their health back on track, escape homelessness, rejoin the world of work, replace isolation with community, and lead healthier and more self-sufficient lives. Š2016 ASCNYC

POSItIVE CHANGE in action: Joyce I came to ASCNYC when I was in the final phase of a residential substance abuse program and needed something positive to occupy my time. I was coming off 25 years of active addiction and was at a loss trying to figure out how to reclaim my life.

I completed ASCNYC’s 8-week Peer Recovery Education Program (PREP) training, which made me aware of new possibilities. In 2011, I was hired as ASCNYC’s Lead Trainer for PREP. Now, my passion in life is to give other people what I found at ASCNYC: the awareness that change is possible. ASCNYC provides skills, services, and support that show people they can do something meaningful with their lives. Many times, we’re working with a person who’s never had a job, or never been able to finish anything.

But we don’t abandon them. We are there every step of the way.

Before I came to ASCNYC, I would describe my life as devastated and nonproductive. ASCNYC has been a game-changer for me. Today, I am motivated, inspired, and fulfilled.

POSITIVE CHANGE THRIVES HERE.

ASCNYC has been a game-changer for me. Today, I am motivated, inspired, and fulfilled.

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POSItIVE CHANGE Starts HERE In 1990, with the AIDS epidemic raging, AIDS Service Center NYC opened its doors in lower Manhattan, with a staff of just three people.

serious health conditions such as addiction, mental illness, hepatitis, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. This broadened focus helps our clients manage multiple health challenges, while bringing our premier services to new populations facing a wider range of life-threatening health disparities.

Today, ASCNYC is a leader in innovative, culturally competent HIV/AIDS services to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to HIV testing, treatment, care, and support. Each year, we help more than 14,000 New Yorkers make positive changes toward health, housing, recovery, and self-sufficiency.

The result: More New Yorkers improving their health, embracing Positive Change, and moving toward a better future.

Building on 25 years of HIV-related expertise, we’ve expanded our services to address other

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ASCNYC Community Service Centers

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1. ASCNYC Midtown Central Herald Square: 64 West 35th Street, 3rd Floor 2. Keith Haring Harlem Center East Harlem: 315 East 104th Street, at Second Avenue 2

3. CASA Washington Heights Washington Heights: 2036 Amsterdam Avenue, at 161st Street 4. Pelham Grand Supportive Housing Pelham Bay: 1870 Pelham Parkway, Bronx 1

5. Luis & Lillian’s Outreach Center Lower East Side: 150 First Avenue, at 9th Street 6. Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center Lower East Side: 25 Allen Street, at Canal Street

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ASCNYC’s services give each person the unique mix of support he or she needs to feel better, live better, and do better.

By addressing the underlying issues that contribute to poor health, ASCNYC’s individualized, full-service approach helps people struggling with addiction, stigma, mental illness, and other challenges to get their health back on track.

Our free, multilingual services include:

Care Management

Intensive support to access medical care, pharmacy, housing, and other key services to promote wellness and self-sufficiency.

Harm Reduction And Recovery Services

Counseling, education, syringe exchange, coaching, and support to help active and recovering substance users reduce risk, access healthcare, connect with a caring community, and explore recovery at their own pace.

Peer Training and Workforce Re-entry Services

Job-readiness skills training empowers individuals to become community leaders and role models, inspiring others to make healthy choices. ASCNYC Peer Educators provide recovery coaching, escorts to medical care, and other services that maximize our impact. At the same time, the Peers gain marketable skills that lead to jobs in organizations citywide.

HIV Prevention and Coaching

HIV and hepatitis C testing, rapid access to medical care, and risk reduction education that enables women, gay and bisexual men, and people with histories of addiction to get healthy and stay healthy.

Supportive Housing

Short-term and permanent housing with a robust mix of onsite services that promote recovery, wellness, and selfsufficiency for people facing multiple chronic conditions.

POSItIVE CHANGE in action: TERESA After 11 years of crack addiction and 13 years of prostituting on the streets, I went to prison and had a vision of a better life.

So, while I was locked up, I completed a drug treatment program.

But when I was released from prison, I had nothing. No place to stay. Nowhere to turn.

No idea how to find substance abuse services and medical care.

Getting my own apartment in ASCNYC’s Pelham Grand Supportive Housing Program is the first sense of normalcy I’ve ever had—a dramatic change after living on the streets for years. I feel safe here. ASCNYC believed in me, cared about me, and helped me get my life on track.

ASCNYC believed in me, cared about me, and helped me get my life

I go to every group ASCNYC offers: nutrition, recovery, support groups. I access mental health services and medical care. I educate myself with workshops and trainings. I help new residents get settled and learn about all the activities going on here. And I run Pelham Grand’s weekly arts-and-crafts group and movie group.

I continue to be in recovery and stay clean.

I am very serious about change. Thanks to ASCNYC’s amazing support system and my own hard work—for the first time in my life, I am experiencing success.

POSITIVE CHANGE LIVES HERE.

on track.

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POSItIVE CHANGE in action: JOHANN I found out about ASCNYC at a hospital-based HIV clinic where ASCNYC posts some of its case managers. The case manager took me under her wing, and suggested I visit ASCNYC. It was a hard time in my life. I had just lost my mom and my brother. I’d left my job and was at a very low point. I even contemplated suicide.

ASCNYC was a friendly place. It gave me a feeling of belonging.

Today, I am a Peer Educator at ASCNYC. I help with the food and nutrition services, escort clients to their medical appointments, and lead workshops. It’s such a positive thing to interact with other people and see progress for them—not just for me.

Now, I have a reason for living and a sense of purpose: to help other people. Because at the lowest point in my life, somebody was there for me. And that somebody was ASCNYC.

POSITIVE CHANGE GROWS HERE.

at the lowest point in my life, somebody was there for me. And that somebody was ASCNYC.

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Positive Impact We annually serve 5,200 low-income New Yorkers with various chronic illnesses—a 50% increase since 2013.

86% of every dollar raised goes directly to services and programs.

ASCNYC has powerful partnerships with New York City’s

biggest and best hospitals

—New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, Institute for Family Health, and others—that give our clients immediate access to high-quality, effective care.

We give HIV+ people the support to get healthy and stay healthy.

Most of our clients have multiple

chronic illnesses. We help these individuals get the care and support they

Of the 1,000 HIV+ people we serve each month:

98% are

94% are on

75% are virally

connected to

prescribed

suppressed

essential primary

antiretroviral

medical care

medications

need to feel better and get healthier.

55%

HIV/AIDS

41%

Active chemical dependency

38%

Cardiovascular disease

37%

Mental health conditions

26%

Hepatitis

19%

Asthma

13%

Diabetes

Each year, we graduate

93% of

Individuals who complete our peer training program

participants in our renowned peer

and become ASCNYC Peer Educators experience

training program.

improved health and wellness:

We provide paid internships and job-readiness skills development for 94 PEER EDUCATORS who deliver community education

98% have been

95% see their

79% of our HIV+

“clean and sober” for

doctor regularly

peers are virally

at least one year

suppressed

and health coaching to 14,000 New Yorkers—the equivalent of 19 full-time employees, at an annual savings of over $800,000.

Over 25 years, ASCNYC’s steady trajectory of growth has enabled us to serve more people in more

places than ever before—making Positive Change a reality for tens of thousands of New Yorkers in need. annual budget

Our clients reside in high-need neighborhoods throughout NYC. 43%

Manhattan

29%

Bronx

22%

Brooklyn

6%

Queens, Staten Island & the wider metro area

2016

$14.9 million

2011

$9 million

2006

$5.3 million

2001

$3.2 million

1996

$1.7 million

1991

$197,602

Each year, we connect 3,377 low-income New Yorkers to life-saving medical care and treatment.

POSItIVE CHANGE in action: MALIKA I remember looking at ASCNYC’s website and thinking, “This is my last resort. If this option doesn’t work, I’m afraid I’m going to go down a negative, destructive road.” I was putting a lot of effort into finding full-time employment but was stuck in the cycle of seasonal work.

I was discouraged about my future.

The last bit of inner strength left in me took me to ASCNYC. Going there, I experienced full engagement. I joined a group for HIVpositive women that helped me find my voice again and build up a better social support network. Then I graduated from ASCNYC’s Peer Training Institute.

Now, I’m leading workshops that help other people protect their health and stick with their medical treatments. This keeps me invested in my own health, too.

I’m part of a positive current that keeps

Before ASCNYC, I wasn’t living the life I wanted to be living. But now, I’ve found a career— something I love to do. I’m part of a positive current that keeps me moving forward.

Once I found Positive Change, there was no stepping back from it.

POSITIVE CHANGE WORKS HERE.

me moving forward.

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Investing in Positive Change At ASCNYC, investing in Positive Change means providing the attention, skills, and support to help people take back their lives from chronic illness, homelessness, addiction, isolation, and despair.

It means investing in people’s capacity to change and desire for a healthier, brighter future.

Everyone deserves a chance at Positive Change. In fact, we can’t think of a better investment.

Join us. Donate. Volunteer.

Learn more about our work.

Make a Positive Change today. www.ascnyc.org

Positive Change means that you can come from a rocky road, but if you’ve really had enough, you can turn your whole life around. ASCNYC supports that process in many different ways. If you’re homeless, we have housing services. If you’re not getting medical care, we’ll connect you with the clinics we’re affiliated with. We’ll help you understand your medications and manage the side effects. We’ll provide a hot meal and a warm coat if you need it. That’s what we do at ASCNYC. We help.

—Joseph

ASCNYC.ORG 64 West 35th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001 212.645.0875 | info@ascnyc.org | ascnyc.org/donate

Photos: David Nager | Design: LETTER 7 | Editorial: Gerry Gomez Pearlberg