Bay Windows - Local News, July 8, 1999
Scott A. Giordano, Bay Windows staff

Boston's largest peer-led organization for people living with HIV/AIDS, the Boston Living Center (BLC,) announced its Expansion Campaign last week, in order to adapt and meet the growing needs of HIV/AIDS survivors, particularly women. It already has begun constructing and renovating a new building that will be located next to its current site at 29 Stanhope Street and is expected to be completed by summer's end. The BLC also will continue operating at its current site.

The BLC's expansion will allow it to offer more programs for women, initiate on-site child care, train and counsel members who wish to return to work, assist members with mental-health problems and/or substance-abuse issues, and form an accessible community of AIDS-service organizations (ASOs.) The first floor of the new building will be an HIV-related pharmacy; the second will offer the BLC's new services and the third floor will be home of the AIDS Housing Corporation.

"The Center's success is based on its ability to adapt to the changing needs of the epidemic," said BLC Executive Director Leah Camhi. "The Living Center has now grown beyond its current capacity and must expand." The new site is made possible by Wainwright Bank and the bank's co-founder and chairman of the board, Robert Glassman, for providing the BLC with a deeply discounted lease. First-year expenses of the new facility are expected to total $550,000. The BLC already has received about $250,000 in pledges but needs to raise the additional $200,000 to complete the construction and renovation. Angela Menino, wife of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Glassman; Jean McGuire, director of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's AIDS Bureau; and various staff and members of the BLC celebrated the official kick-off of the BLC's Expansion Campaign on June 29, at an event titled the Hard Hat Party and held at the BLC's current site.

BLC member Julia Tripp said she is happy to see the BLC growing to meet the needs of more women like herself. "I see women with HIV struggling to take the time to take care of themselves," she said. "Hopefully, this expansion will allow us to come together to give strength to each other."

The BLC currently has more than 1,500 members, and it offers more than 50 programs in conjunction with 12 partner AIDS-service agencies that operate under the same roof. Its services include serving more than 30,000 meals each year ù such as a free Monday night dinner, weekday lunches, a Saturday brunch and food to go. Its range of other services include free haircuts, personal care packages and access to a gym and pool. In addition, the BLC helps low-income people to maintain their physical appearances and offers holistic therapies to help members with pain and stress management.

The BLC's largest annual event is its Thanksgiving dinner titled "A Celebration of Life," in which it serves a free turkey dinner to more than 2,300 people living with HIV and their loved ones.

"The word is out that the Living Center helps people with HIV and AIDS feel better about themselves, enables them to keep to their rigorous drug regiments and helps them cope with a changing world and their improved diagnoses," Camhi said. "But even though we help make life better for people with AIDS, we must remember that AIDS is not over. It remains a demanding and terrifying enemy. Yes, our members are living longer than ever. But they still come to us facing complex financial, family and housing issues, as well as heartbreaking isolation.

"In the 10 years since our founding, the Living Center has grown from a specialized drop-in center [into] a critical support for people with HIV," she added. "The Living Center's expansion will help us continue to play an important part in the fight against AIDS."

(For more information on the Living Center or its services, call 617-236-1012.)
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