Once again, I Choose Life Health and Wellness Center (ICL) has stepped outside of the box, taking its HIV/AIDS education, testing and messaging into the African American community. ICL partnered again with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. during its 4th Annual Greens for Scholarship Dreams Golf Classic. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. hosted an annual golf event to award scholarships to graduating high school students from the Greater Los Angeles, Pasadena and the Inland Empire area. “I always say, you’ve got to meet the people where they are and today, they’re here at Industry Hills Golf Course,” said Tony R. Wafford, President/CEO of ICL.
Earlier this year, ICL partnered with Alpha Phi Alpha to deliver HIV/AIDS education and messaging to a number of juvenile detention centers. This partnership seems to be just what the African American community has needed. As ICL heads into its second year of its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Partnering and Communicating Together to Act Against AIDS (PACT) partnership, that includes some of the nation’s leading organizations representing the populations hardest hit by HIV/AIDS; the African American community, they are poised and positioned to truly make an impact within the African American community. As we all know, African Americans have the most severe burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Compared with other races and ethnicities, African Americans account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses, those living with HIV, and those even diagnosed with AIDS.
I Choose Life recognizes that it’s only through a collaborative approach, as a PACT Member, that the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) to reduce new HIV infections, improving health outcomes for individuals in, as well as outside of the African American community living with HIV will be achieved. ICL also believes, by working and thinking outside of the box, there will be a reduction in HIV related disparities.
The event was a tremendous success and very well attended with 72 golfers and 127 supporters, all of whom received HIV/AIDS information, local HIV testing locations, referrals, as well as male and female condoms, that were donated by its newest partnership, Skyy Banks, Atlanta Ambassador of the Red Pump Project.
As I Choose Life heads into their second year of the Partnering and Communicating Together to Act Against AIDS (PACT) project, “I’m asking all of those reading this, just as I asked all of those 199 golfers and supporters, to please do something for me. As we work towards ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic in African American communities all over the country, lets focus in on, what we have done, what we can do and what we will do,” said Tony Wafford. I Choose Life is #DoingIt; how about you?
For more information, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/actagainstaids/partnerships/pact.html.
