Chicago Tribune (CT) - FRIDAY, June 21, 1996 Edition: NORTHWEST SPORTS FINAL Section: METRO NORTHWEST Page: 7 Word Count: 544
Evan Osnos, Tribune Staff Writer.

"I had a patient and got to know the patient quite well. And the patient had AIDS," Smith said. "And I was in his room, and a minister came--the patient was dying--and the minister was afraid to come in to the room, and it aggravated me to no end."

Smith said that experience inspired her to take up the charge for HIV/AIDS education. To start, she targeted the spiritual centers of the community: the churches.

By 1989, with the help of her family, Smith had established a non-profit organization and had received her first grant to provide HIV/AIDS education to 25 churches in the Roseland area.

Today, Smith estimates that her organization, the South Side Help Center, at 10420 S. Halsted St., has helped more than 30,000 people in the Roseland community and throughout the city on issues including HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, teen pregnancy and drug abuse.

Through programs like Street Outreach, in which former drug addicts go to crack houses to talk to intravenous drug users about HIV/AIDS, Smith says the center uses peer counseling to encourage people to get help.

"I'm an ex-gang member, I'm an ex-drug addict, I'm on the front lines" said Russell Cage, 37, who was recruited a year ago to help with Street Outreach. "I gain that trust--I'm in the dope houses, I see the kids dealing the drugs. These are the kids I see on a daily basis."

Louis Spragglins, 17, says he also uses a peer counseling approach at Fenger High School when discussing issues such as HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy.

"They're all my peers, so it's easier for them to relate to me," Spragglins said. "They use me as a resource person. If they want to know information they come to me."

Thursday morning the center was visited by Patricia Fleming, the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy who met with some of the center's staff and participants.

She applauded the center for its work, especially with young black women who make up one of the fastest growing segments of the HIV/AIDS population. she said.

Michelle Brown, 18, is just the kind of person that Fleming and the center is trying to reach. And, in this case, they did.

When she came to a meeting last October, she was pregnant and in need of answers. What she found, she said, was a supportive and unique resource.

"It's like a family," she said. "You can talk to these people without hearing a lecture."

Being non-judgmental, Smith said, is the key to being effective. People will only listen if the issue is their lifestyle, not their identity.

"You can't target people as a 'group of people,' you have to target their behavior," Smith said. "We say 'If you are a person that injects drugs, then you are at risk,' but we don't say 'If you are a homosexual, then you are at risk.' "

Once a person is in the door, Smith said, the center can refer them to the clinics and services that actually provide the care.

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