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As a community-based organization Selma AIR works with every aspect of the HIV/AIDS vius. We provide platforms for those infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS virus. Our programs include:
EDUCATION
Selma AIR provides on-site presentations and educational outreach related to HIV, AIDS, prevention of HIV transmission, healthier lifestyle choices and safer sexual behvaiors.
Our instructors have an average of 17 years of experience with community-based education and health promotions.
Through our Speakers' Bureau we are able to reach diverse audiences with facts, information, and even first-hand accounts of living with HIV/AIDS from some of our HIV positive educators.
Our outreach efforts include public service announcements on local radio stations, periodic interviews and publications, social media campaigns as well as tabling at events like health fairs, community festivals, job fairs, and college orientations
OUTREACH
CLIENT SERVICES
Through our health monitoring clinic we offer off-site health screenings for persons living with HIV or AIDS.
We also provide medical care intervention through a telemedicine program designed to offer access to reliable medical care through teleconference, a more cost-effective way for patients who reside in more rural, remote locations to have the experience of medical specialists from virtually anywhere. Our telemedicince program helps to transcend the barriers faced by many rurally-based Alabamians living with HIV/AIDS.
Selma AIR offers monthly support group meetings for persons living with HIV/AIDS as well as peer counseling. The peer mentors provide education and outreach services to infected persons along with referrals to medical/dental care, consumer advocacy groups, emergency or transitional housing, secondary prevention counseling and food distribution programs.
Using federal funds designated to the HOPWA (Housing Opportunties for Persons with AIDS) Program, Selma AIR is able to meet the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS and assists them in maintaining safe, affordable housing.
Our food bank offers clients access to non-perishable products that supply or supplement their nutritional needs.
TRAINING
Selma AIR is able to train and certify persons interested in becoming HIV/AIDS Educators using the Connections curriculum. Connections is a HIV/AIDS prevention program designed to promote comfortable discussions about the social barriers associated with the increased number of infected persons in the African American community.
Connections training and certification is available for a fee which includes all training materials.
TESTING
Selma AIR provides FREE, confidential HIV testing in our office, at community centers/churches, during health fairs, on college campuses and virtually anywhere HIV testing is being encouraged.
We use Oraquik oral swabs to provide rapid test results. Most pesons tested will know the results of their test (HIV negative or HIV positive) within 20 minutes.
GETTING TO ZERO
Launched on December 1, 2014, the Getting to Zero initiative is a year-long effort to provide intense education, training and testing opportunities for persons living in the Black Belt of Alabama. Getting to Zero will take a multi-facted approach to reducing the number of new HIV diagnoses, deaths from AIDS and discrimination against those infected with the virus:
WORKING WITH PASTORS/RELIGIOUS LEADERS
REACHING ELDERS IN THE COMMUNITY
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO PROMOTE AWARENESS
FORMING MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS
USING INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS TO REACH TARGETED POPULATIONS
"I'm a survivor -- a living example of what people can go through and survive."
-- Elizabeth Taylor
THE HARD TRUTH
25%
OF INFECTED PERSONS DO NOT KNOW.
55%
OF WOMEN WHO ARE HIV POSITIVE ARE VICTIMS DOMESTIC ABUSE.
52%
OF ALL NEW HIV INFECTIONS OCCUR IN THE DEEP SOUTH.
Recent studies have indicated there are an estimated 1.2 million people who are knowingly living with HIV in the United States. According to data on HIV diagnosis from the Centers for Disease Control, HIV touches every corner of the nation, with more than 51% of all new HIV infections occurring in the states of the Deep South.
Factors that contribute to the spread of HIV are varied but most often include poverty, discrimination/homophobia, higher rates of undiagnosed/untreated sexually transmitted infections (STI's), language barriers, and higher rates of incarceration among men. These findings underscore the urgent need to prioritize and target HIV prevention efforts to address disproportionately affected communities.
At Selma AIR, both individual and social determinants of risk are considered in the design and implementation of prevention efforts. Become a part our effort to reduce the number of HIV cases, AIDS-related deaths and discrimination by becoming a Selma Friend for Life!