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vr CARES: The Cost and
Benefits of Freedom and Integrity

 

BY DONALD BONIFACE

ermont CARES, our
AIDS Service
Organization (ASO), for

most of the state of Vermont, has
an ambitious mission statement
to be carried out by 11 employ-
ees and a crew of 25 volunteers:
“to improve the quality of life,
create compassionate communi-
ties, and prevent the spread of
HIV by working with people
affected by HIV/AIDS as cata-
lysts for social and individual
change.”

_ Another official goal of the
organization, one that I can more
easily envision is to witness the
day HIV is conquered, when
Vermont CARES’ services will
no longer be needed: the day
that the desks are cleared, the
door is locked and everyone I
goes home for the last time. This
aspiration nourishes a great hope
that I’ve|held since the pandemic
began.

I was living in the thick of
HIV/AIDS in New York City in
the late 1970s and early 1980s, a
close witness to the early deci-
mation of the gay population
there. The media’s reporting was
timid, infrequent, and often col-
ored with prejudice. The federal
government simply turned a
blind eye. Leadership, direction,
and HIV/AIDS education arose

_ from out of the community

itself.

Gay/Men’s Health Crisis in
New York surfaced as the first
grassroots ASO, serving as the
model for future ASOs as the
pandemic spread. Primarily
funded through private dona-
tions, GMHC proposed the con-
cept and the urgency of safer sex
and broadcast the message.
“Silence = Death” became the
mantra for the activist move-
ment, a slogan that was meant to

oitm is goi

?'

shame the government and the

media for their catastrophic neg-H’

lect that allowed HIV to thrive
and spread, unannounced and
unchecked. ’

I In 1984, I moved to Los
Angeles. It was there the follow-
ing year that my HIV-positive
status was disclosed to me. I
became a client of AIDS Project
Los Angeles, the first of six
ASOs that I would eventually
access for services as I moved to
different places over the two

vaccine, community outreach
and prevention education still
remain today our best hope for
putting an end to AIDS. ~
In 2004, the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), one of the major funding
sources for most ASOs in
America, stipulated that future
grantees would have to comply
withrestrictions on the degrees
of explicitness that could be

_ used in HIV/AIDS prevention

education and literature. The

had the courage of conviction to
stand on its own.
This past year has been diffi-

_ cult for the Vermont CARES"

team, as it has gone through
many necessary changes result-
ing from their chosen autonomy.
Three administrative positions
were cut. With the juggling of
responsibilities among staff
members, individual workloads
increased significantly, requiring
everyone to work more than
forty hours per week.

circumstances today suggest an
eerie leaning backward toward a
pattern in our past when our
government retreated in casual
denial,‘ and private funds but-
tered the breads of truth and
wisdom, delivering vital suste-
nance through the early days
and years of the HIV/AIDS cri-
sis. Comfort comes from know-
ing that the staff of Vermont
CARES is preparing today for
their secured future with the
development of a positive new

The CDC restrictions were unacceptable; it is estimated that

50 percent of the people living with

have yet to be identified.

decades that followed. Among
these services were psychologi-
cal counseling, support groups,
financial assistance and adminis-
. trative help in dealing with the
difficult bureaucracies. But for .

- me, one of the most important

benefits derived from the ASOS
has been their opportunities to
offer my volunteer services in
return, connecting me back to
the community as a valuable
asset in HIV/AIDS education
and prevention.

Both the face of AIDS and
foci of the ASOs have changed
in recent years. Symptomatic
people with AIDS—related ill-
nesses are living longer, while
their needs for services and sup-
port don’t diminish. Nor have
the community’s needs for pre-
vention education and HIV test-
ing ‘diminished, and offering
these community services is by
far the larger part of Vermont
CARES’s work.

One enduring truth surfaced
in the early days of the epidem-
ic: AIDS is preventable. In the
absence of the ever-elusive cura-
tive silver bullet and a viable

CDC also directed that AIDS
education be mostly provided for
people who were already known
to be infected.

.For many reasons, these
restrictions were unacceptable;
for one in particular, it is esti-
mated that 50 percent of the peo-
ple» living with the virus in this
country have yet to be identified.
With conscious focus on and
adherence to their mission state-
ment, which, I remind you, pro-
poses serving everyone in the
community, the Vermont
CARES board of directors
decided to move ahead through
the ensuing three—year grant
cycle without the CDC money,
nearly $300,000 in total, and
without the limitations attached
to the acceptance of the money, ‘
but with the freedom to continue
teaching prevention methods that
were proven to be most effective
and appropriate in our communi-
ties.

I could not have been more
proud of the board for their

vision and probity. To our

knowledge, Vermont CARES is
the only ASO in the nation that

The programs that Vermont
CARES offers have also been
affected in line with the reduc-
tion in available funds. Despite
last year’s budget cuts, preven-
tion programs experienced
increases in the numbers of
clients who were served. New
rapid testing was introduced
with test results available in
about 20 minutes, and more
people were tested in 2005 than
in past years. Less money was
available for community educa-
tion but more important, the
organization is free to deliver
the uncensored messages of
these programs in ways that
make most sense for a healthier
Vermont. A loss in the number
of volunteers in the Peer
Outreach Program required the
refocusing of the program’s
attention to highest-risk clients.
In the midst of all this, Vermont
CARES raised $27,000 in new
donations, and a program was
launched with privately raised
funds to distribute safe syringes
throughout the North East
Kingdom.

I can’t help noting here how

the virus in this country

philosophy. While keeping their
focus on their mission statement
and the right thing to do as a
service-providing team, their
new philosophy suggests how to
continue to provide service with
integrity, regardless of unsure
and changing outside pressures.
One way for them to still be
around for the end of AIDS is to
learn to ask more for what they
need. Their crucial work in our
community for nearly 20 years
renders them most deserving.
So while they’re going

through this learning process
and, hopefully, you’re still aglow
with the holidayspirit, why not
pick up the phone and call
Vermont CARES, perhaps to
find out how you might be able
to help, or maybe just ‘to thank
them for all they’ve done and

continue to do in the communi-

ty? Everyone needs strokes,
especially during difficult times.
Call 802 863-2437 or 1-800 649-
2437. For this, I thank you in
advance. V

Don Boniface is a Vermont
CARES client and volunteer.

. under the knife!

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