Capital Campaign

BUILDING ON OUR PROMISE...

Since 1983, AIDS Community Services has always grown to meet the challenges of HIV/AIDS in Western New York. ACS is now one of the largest, most comprehensive HIV/AIDS service providers in the nation. But the need for our services has grown even more rapidly. In just over a decade at the Roanoke, our home in downtown Buffalo, the client base at ACS has grown from 400 to over 1,500 people — doubling in the last four years alone. Over the same period of time our staff has grown from 47 to over 120. The agency’s need for space to accommodate essential programs and services has become urgent. ACS has developed an innovative strategic plan designed to meet not only our present space needs, but those of the future as well. The centerpiece of this strategic plan is the new Evergreen Center, an ambitious $5.2 million project which includes rehabilitation of the historic Roanoke building and construction of a 24,000 square foot addition which will house expanded medical facilities and direct service programs for our clients and their families. Completion of the Evergreen Center will allow ACS to continue providing vital core services our clients depend on, and to add much-needed new programs and services which meet the ever-changing demands of the epidemic.

Help for Today

AIDS Community Services has designed a unique system of services and programs to assist families as they struggle to meet the challenges of a chronic, life threatening disease. Over 1,500 individuals and families access the following on-site services and 85% of these families are at or below the poverty line.

Primary HIV/AIDS Health Care Center – serves 450 individuals and families with critical medical care that is delivered in a private physician office environment.

Outreach and Prevention Education – extensive HIV/AIDS outreach and prevention education programs reach more than 10,000 individuals.

HIV Testing – daily on-site testing with results in just 20 minutes.

Case Management – case management professionals assist over 900 individuals to access a wide variety of on-site and community services that contribute to their family’s quality of life.

Housing – programs that assist in funding and maintaining safe and appropriate housing, including monthly rental/mortgage subsidies, utility assistance, furniture and household goods.

Nutrition – programs assure maximized effectiveness of anti-viral medications, including home-delivered meals (64,000 annually) and groceries, food shopping vouchers, on-site daily lunches and food pantry for over 2,000 individuals and families.

Mental Health – on-site licensed mental health care, short term counseling and support groups are extended to over 120 individuals.

Career entry/re-entry – assistance and counseling is provided to a select group of individuals able to enter or re-enter the workforce.

Hope for Tomorrow

As an organization, AIDS Community Services actively works to bring an end to this epidemic. We work to achieve this goal be continuing to develop programs to prevent the spread of the virus. At the forefront in our Evergreen Center will be:

Collaborative Research Relationships – anticipating participation in promising research venture with other local and national partners in hopes of finding more effective treatments and one day discovering a cure.

Expansion of Core Services – the new Evergreen Center will enable this agency to significantly expand all our core health services to meet the continually growing needs of the community and this epidemic. We intend to double our medical practice alone within five years.

Telemedicine Initiatives – that will develop ling distance learning centers where we can share our information on prevention and treatment with others both nationally and internationally.

Expand Outreach and Education – by working with the Centers for Disease Control and the New York State AIDS Institute, we will be able to offer new multi-layered prevention programs targeting adolescents, sexually active adults and intravenous drug users/abusers with the goal of helping individuals avoid infection.

New Prevention Programs – by using models pioneered by the Centers for Disease Control, we will work with and help HIV+ individuals remain healthy along with avoiding activities that may place others at risk of infection.