SAVING OUR HOMES SAVING OUR LIVES

Transcription

1 SAVING OUR HOMES SAVING OUR LIVES An Awards Reception Benefitting Supportive Housing Programs For People Living With HIV/AIDS Sponsored by Raymour & Flanigan TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 2015 AT 6:30 P.M. 9:30 P.M.

2 Greetings, All of us at Bridging Access to Care (formerly Brooklyn AIDS Task Force) are pleased to invite you to our 2015 World AIDS Day Awards Reception: Saving Our Home, Saving Our Lives. We are thrilled to be honoring Academy Award-nominated actress/activist Rosie Perez with the World AIDS Day Humanitarian Award and POZ Magazine with the World AIDS Day Excellence in Journalism Award. Rosie Perez has been an HIV/AIDS activist since 1991, when she first lectured in local inner-new York City high schools about alarming statistics concerning the treacherous disease and educated youths on safe-sex protection. Appointed by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), Perez was officially sworn into office on February 1, POZ Magazine and poz.com are the nation s leading publication and website about HIV/AIDS. POZ and poz.com are identified by its readers as their most trusted sources of information about the disease. Serving the community of people living with and those affected by HIV/AIDS since 1994, POZ chronicles the AIDS pandemic domestically and around the world. Bridging Access to Cares s mission is to provide quality HIV prevention and education services, care and treatment to populations most affected by HIV/AIDS. Since 1986, we have been at the forefront the HIV/AIDS crisis for nearly 30 years. Over the past three decades, the nature of HIV/AIDS has changed and needs have shifted, and BAC has adapted to respond to those changes. A pressing issue for many of our HIV-positive clients is housing. HIV is a chronic condition that can be managed through medication adherence and regular treatment and monitoring, but housing instability can be a major impediment to managing HIV care and treatment. Fully 35% of all people living with HIV/AIDS in NYC are homeless or unstably housed and over 60% experience homelessness or unstable housing at least three times over the course of their illness. Many of our HIV-positive clients also face significant barriers to finding appropriate, long-term housing, including the high rents, gentrification, broker fees, and stagnant government housing subsidies. When a person is able to remain in housing, we know they do better their medication adherence rate is higher, their attendance at health care appointments increases, and their overall health status improves. We currently provide 122 units of scatter-site supportive housing, but even this is not enough to meet the soaring demand in NYC. With your help, we can increase the housing stability of HIV-positive clients who are homeless or on the verge of homelessness. Your contribution will help our clients overcome the persistent barriers to permanent housing. It just so happens that World AIDS Day coincides with Giving Tuesday this year, a global day dedicated to giving back. Please, come join us and help us give back, celebrate the hard work we are all doing, the goals we have already achieved, and the hard work that is to come! I look forward to meeting you personally on December 1, 2015! Warmly, A Personal Message from Executive Director Glenda G. Smith Glenda G. Smith Executive Director

3 Saving Our Homes, Saving Our Lives An Awards Reception Benefitting Supportive Housing Programs For People Living With HIV/AIDS Event Time/Location 6:30pm - 9:30pm Raymour & Flanigan (Downtown Brooklyn) 490 Fulton St. Brooklyn, New York Event Description Stable housing allows persons living with HIV/AIDS to access comprehensive healthcare and adhere to complex HIV/AIDS drug therapies. Throughout many communities, persons living with HIV/AIDS risk losing their housing due to compounding factors, such as increased medical costs, discrimination, limited incomes or reduced ability to keep working due to related illnesses. To address housing needs for low-income persons and families who are living with HIV/AIDS, Bridging Access to Care, will hold the Saving Our Homes, Saving Our Lives award awards reception as it works to enhance awareness of the plight of low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS throughout New York City, specifically in Brooklyn. The funds raised during the awards reception helps to offset and secure funding essentials to maintaining the housing support services so desperately needed for individuals in our community who are HIVpositive and facing homelessness. In addition, funds are needed to properly furnish the homes of formerly homeless HIV/AIDS person including food and pantry items. Below are various ways your donation can directly affect the lives of formerly homeless individuals in our community. About Bridging Access to Care Housing Programs Bridging Access to Care (BAC) has 122 units of permanent scatter-site supportive housing, including 50 units funded for HASA NY/NY III Population H clients in Brooklyn. Additionally, BAC operates a Housing Placement Assistance (HPA) program funded by PHS through DOH to assist HASA clients find permanent housing. Finding landlords/brokers willing to rent to our HASA clients has become increasingly difficult. Maintaining our leases with these landlords has become increasingly difficult as well. BAC has investigated the causes of these difficulties. Although gentrification itself creates a barrier to renting to non-profit organizations limited by specific rental guidelines, there is a second, significant barrier to securing permanent housing for people with HIV/AIDS. The Department of Homeless Services is running a rental assistance program called LINC. The program staff at BAC who are trying to obtain and maintain leases to provide permanent housing for people living with HIV/AIDS are being told by landlords and brokers that they do not want to rent to HASA clients because if they rent to LINC clients instead, they are allotted higher rents and signing bonuses, in addition to enhanced real estate fees. Since they make more money renting to LINC clients, they feel they lose money by renting to HASA clients. However, HASA clients are excluded from the LINC program. In order to qualify for LINC, clients have to be in a city shelter for 3-4 months. Since HASA clients reside in SROs (single room occupancy) and not city shelters, they are disqualified from this enhanced housing benefit. This translates to homeless people living with HIV/ AIDS remaining homeless for longer lengths of time. Although the intent was surely not discriminatory, the result is that homeless people living with HIV/AIDS are discriminated against in the NYC housing market. About Bridging Access to Care, Inc. Bridging Access to Care (formerly known as Brooklyn AIDS Task Force), is a nonprofit, multi-service communitybased organization dedicated to providing comprehensive clinical treatment, prevention education and mental health services within at-risk communities in New York City, especially those who are impacted by HIV/AIDS.

4 Saving Our Homes, Saving Our Lives Awards Reception Sponsorship Levels Red Ribbon Partner $5,000 Fully furnishes FIVE (5) studio/1 bedroom apartments for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS Provides funds for a full pantry bag that contains the fixings for a holiday meal to be provided to 100 formerly homeless persons with HIV/AIDS Full page inside cover color ad in awards reception booklet Sponsorship will be part of the event name Presented by Prominent and name and logo placement in all printed materials, including step-n-repeat banner Speaking Opportunity to address the guests Photo Opportunity with Honorees Sponsors 2 tickets for a BAC client to attend Progressive Partner $2, Fully furnishes a one bedroom apartment including Air conditioner, small TV, and fully Stocks the cabinets with household staple items and provides a gift card for a supermarket to obtain fresh vegetables and meats to fully stock refrigerator for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS Half-page color ad in awards reception booklet Prominent name and logo placement in all printed materials, including step-n-repeat banner Photo Opportunity with Honorees Prominent name and logo placement on step-n-repeat banner Leadership Partner $1, Stocks the cabinets with household staple items (flour, spices, cleaning supplies etc. for 100 formerly homeless persons with HIV/AIDS. Provides funds for a full pantry bag that contains the fixings for a holiday meal to be provided to 25 formerly homeless persons with HIV/AIDS. Quarter page color ad in awards reception booklet Listing recognition in awards reception booklet Prominent name and logo placement on step-n-repeat banner SUPPORTER $ Purchases a new couch/dresser for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS Purchases a new bed, mattress cover, comforter and pillows for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS. Purchases a kitchen table and fully stocks kitchen with plates/pots/glassware for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS Purchases a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS a small TV Purchases an air conditioner for a formerly homeless person with HIV/AIDS. Listing recognition in awards reception booklet RECEPTION GUEST $100.00

5 Please Support our Fundraising Efforts by Placing an Ad in our Awards Reception Booklet Full Page Color Ad x 11...$ Half Page Color Ad x 5...$ Quarter Page Color Ad x 5...$ Business Card Size Color Ad x2...$50.00 All ads will be printed in color (black & white optional). Accepted file formats are 300 dpi PDF or jpeg. Please contact us at (347) for a detail specs list. Deadline for submissions is, November 15, Please a proof copy to scasseus@bac-ny.org. Please indicate your participation I/We would like to purchase a sponsorship. (please indicate sponsorship level) I/We would like to purchase ticket(s) for a total amount of $. I/We would like to purchase a I/We are unable to attend, but I would like to donate $ in the Awards Reception Booklet. to help a BAC client. I/We are not able to attend the Awards Reception but I would like to take out a program ad in the booklet to support BAC s efforts. Thank You for Your Continued Support. Please make checks payable to Bridging Access to Care, Inc. and mail to: Bridging Access to Care Inc., 2261 Church Avenue, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, New York, For more information, please call (347) or scasseus@bac-ny.org. Name Title Company Address Phone City/State/Zip Amount Enclosed $ Signature Date 501 (c)(3) Tax I.D. Number:

6 WORLD AIDS DAY AWARDS RECEPTION Honoring Academy-Award nominee/activist Rosie Perez and POZ Magazine, POZ.com Sponsored by TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1st 2015