Local HIV-Affected Children Receive Hope, Support & Services Through a $450,000 Grant From National Health Foundation: Cascade AIDS Project is 1 of 18 Selected Nationally Out of 313 Projects Submitted

Business Wire - December 15, 2003

PORTLAND, Ore.-- A matching grant of $450,000 has been awarded to Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) to fund their innovative Kids' Connection program for children whose parent or caretaker is HIV-positive. Of 313 nationwide applications to the highly competitive Local Initiative Funding Partners program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), only 18 were funded in 2003. Meyer Memorial Trust nominated CAP's proposal and recently awarded three years of seed-funding for Kids' Connection. The RWJF monies will be dispersed to CAP over four years, and must be matched dollar-for-dollar by locally raised funds. Several equally committed and responsive organizations (listed below) have pledged support.

Kids' Connection was selected as a potential national model for bringing together HIV/AIDS agencies and children's services to address a rapidly growing problem: the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS upon the entire family. HIV-affected families represent vulnerable members of our community who often have the least access to health care, and are disproportionately impacted by poverty, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse and discrimination. (Note to Editors: Families available for interviews upon request.)

With shifting HIV/AIDS demographics, CAP has experienced significant increases in diversity among its client base and sees many more families with children. In 2002, 39% of CAP's 1,600 clients were heterosexual and 16% were women. Among CAP's current gay and bisexual men clients, a higher percentage have children in their lives than ever before. It's estimated that 2,300 HIV-affected children, ages 0-18, live in the Portland metropolitan area.

Because fear and stigma related to HIV/AIDS is still prevalent, many parents choose either not to seek services for themselves or their children outside of the HIV arena, or when they do, they don't disclose their HIV status. As a result, many of their children remain invisible, have unmet needs, and lack access to care and services, while the adults confront HIV/AIDS-related crises. Kids' Connection is designed to improve the physical well-being, mental health, and personal safety of these isolated, vulnerable youth.

Kids' Connection: 1) provides comprehensive, culturally appropriate social services to HIV-affected children; 2) improves resilience in HIV-affected youth through age-appropriate HIV prevention education; and, 3) bolsters community response to recognize and acknowledge that children of HIV-affected families are a significant, growing concern by forging partnerships with other complementary children/family service systems and training service providers.

CAP will collaborate with 12 major social service agencies to improve appropriate identification and service provision to HIV-affected children. Staff training, development of referral mechanisms, and case coordination will form the basis of these partnerships. Kids' Connection efforts help parents like Jane (not her real name) -- a single, Hispanic mother raising a 10-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter -- with emotional support and professional guidance for herself and her children as she struggles through the difficult process of disclosing her HIV status to her kids.

Or, Sally (not her real name) -- a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, who is the only one from a family of four who isn't HIV positive. After years of being the designated caretaker of her parents and sibling, she's become severely depressed. She's unable to reveal her sadness to her family because of the disease's existing burdens. Kids' Connection provides Sally with counseling and got her in touch with a group that takes HIV-affected teens to social support activities twice a month.

The basis of Kids' Connection is to ensure that opportunities to address a complex array of challenges don't slip through the cracks of various access points within existing social service systems. These challenges include: behavior and emotional problems, loss or abandonment of a parent, lack of health insurance, insufficient medical care, and low achievement in school.

According to Victor Merced, Program Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, "Cascade AIDS Project will build on its strong collaborative relationships with other service providers to expand our local infrastructure to support these high-risk kids. In sum, CAP is helping to reengineer a new continuum of care for these children and their families."

In addition to Meyer Memorial Trust, other entities committed to improving community health have awarded grants to Kids' Connection to leverage matching Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds. These include: the Collins Foundation, Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, Northwest Health Foundation, Hanna Andersson Children's Foundation, Bill Healy Foundation, Wessinger Foundation, Lamb Foundation, Stimson-Miller Foundation, PacifiCare Foundation, the City of Portland's Children's Investment Fund and Meritage Mortgage Corporation.

CAP is the leading non-profit community-based provider of HIV prevention, support, housing and advocacy in Oregon and southwest Washington. Almost 6,000 families in Oregon and southwest Washington have had a loved one diagnosed with AIDS since 1982. As many as 5,000 more families in the area have a loved one infected with HIV.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, NJ, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.

CONTACT: Cascade AIDS Project

Thomas Bruner, 503-223-5907, ext. 223

MediaWrite

Janna Mock-Lopez, 503-643-6413

SOURCE: Cascade AIDS Project

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