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The Latino Commission on AIDS is a nonprofit organization.
In response to the critical, unmet need for HIV prevention and care for Latinos, a coalition of Latino leaders founded the agency in 1990. The Commission realizes its mission by spearheading health advocacy for Latinos, promoting HIV education, developing model prevention programs for high-risk communities, and by building capacity in community organizations. Through its extensive network of partner organizations and community leaders, the Commission works to mobilize an effective community response to meet the health challenges and address the impact of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis & STIs in communities nationwide. The Latino Commission on AIDS has proudly served the Latinx LGBTQ population and is committed in creating and promoting a safe space. The Commission is the founder of the Hispanic Health Network, dedicated to eradicate health disparities in our communities.
Guillermo Chacón
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Since its inception, the Commission has been directed by Dennis de Leon, a tireless advocate and national leader of the Latino community struggle to address the epidemic until his passing in December 2009. Guillermo Chacón, former Vice-President of the Latino Commission on AIDS and a national leader on Latinos and HIV/AIDS issues was named President by the Board of Directors in November 2009. |
Dennis deLeon
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The Commission is dedicated to resolving the HIV crisis in the Latino community, where social stigma, poverty, language barriers, immigration status fears, and access to care, deter testing and increase the infection rate. Over 200,000 Latinos in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are living with HIV/AIDS. The fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., Latinos constitute 17% of the U.S. population but account for over 19% of the AIDS cases. |
Our Five Core Services
The Commission's public health model encompasses five core and complementary services provided to Latino communities: health education, HIV prevention, capacity building, advocacy, and health behavioral research. All services are offered in Spanish by a culturally diverse bilingual staff of health, education and business professionals.
• Health Education [+]
Knowledge of HIV risk and treatment options remains a significant barrier to preventing the spread of the disease among Latinos and helping Latinos with HIV/AIDS to stay healthy. The Commission is strongly committed to ongoing Spanish language health education and strategic media campaigns that educate the general public about HIV treatment and prevention, as well as other health disparities affecting Latino communities. For over a decade the Commission has provided the only Spanish language HIV treatment education available in the U.S. and continues to provide this training to frontline healthcare professionals, peer educators and public health officials. Our training professionals continue providing workshops, institutes and national conferences on many HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention topics to Latino immigrants, community leaders, healthcare workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
• HIV Prevention [+]
All programs at the Commission are guided by our mission to prevent disease and promote health in Latino communities. The agency has a long history of developing and implementing model prevention and risk reduction interventions in low-income Latino communities, including the only initiative in the U.S. to mobilize communities of faith for HIV interventions. The Commission has worked with more than 75 churches of many denominations to build ministries of health in high risk communities and to initiate prevention programs for women and adolescents. Another thrust of the prevention program has been working with grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations to develop and implement innovative prevention interventions. For the past decade, the Commission has reached the wider Latino community with HIV testing, counseling and referrals to healthcare and housing through pioneering programs based on social networking models that reach Latinos at highest risk of HIV.
• Capacity Building Assistance [+]
Finding solutions to the health disparities impacting Latinos can best come from within Latino communities. The Commission has always been committed to building the capacity of local institutions - community organizations, health departments, healthcare providers, churches, and LGBT groups - to provide local disease prevention, healthcare and health education services in Latino communities. In conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and other government agencies, the Commission is strengthening community organizations and health departments from Maine to New Jersey (and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) that provide HIV prevention interventions to Latinos. Another ongoing effort has been helping LGBT groups to effectively operate as non-profit organizations offering social support and prevention services in high-risk Latino communities.
• Advocacy & Awareness [+]
The HIV crisis can only be resolved with awareness at every level of society and through organizing communities to advocate for increased resources and access to healthcare. The Commission's hallmark awareness initiative is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (www.NLAAD.org). Annually on October 15, the Commission mobilizes more than 350 community organizations in over 250 cities across the country to host HIV testing, education and prevention initiatives. Advocacy has long been a core competency of the agency. The Commission is dedicated to mobilizing Latino groups and community leaders, building broad based consensus, and advocating at all levels of government. In addition, advocacy training is provided to grassroots organizations throughout the U.S.
• Hispanic Health Behavioral Research [+]
The Commission developed the Hispanic Health Behavioral Research Center in 2008 as a community-based participatory research endeavor of the Research and Evaluation Department. The Hispanic Health Behavioral Research Center works with programs inside the Commission and with other community-based and academic institutions to identify research questions, develop research protocols, collect and analyze data, and write up findings. Since 2008, the Hispanic Health Behavioral Research Center team has: obtained additional support for research projects; written four articles that have appeared in academic peer-review journals; presented at nine academic and professional conferences; and developed evaluation reports on five community-based projects.
The Hispanic Health Behavioral Research Center recognizes the need to articulate the larger health concerns of the Hispanic communities. As a result, projects are currently underway to look at: factors affecting usage of HIV/AIDS services; the implementation of evidence-based prevention research at community based organizations; smoking cessation and tobacco control; sexuality, gender identity and substance use; social marketing techniques; and factors affecting obesity and nutrition. The Commission Hispanic Health Behavioral Research Center looks at some common variables, including:
- acculturation;
- acculturative stress;
- demographics including country of origin, racial identity, sexuality, and HIV status;
- social networks;
- and service utilization and access.
Spreading the Message
With illustrations and pictures, the Latino Commission on AIDS has used many powerful
images the message education, to spread of prevention, training or awareness.
Our Supporters
Government
Ryan White Title
United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The New York State Department of Health (AIDS Institute)
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Foundations
AIDS United
The Hispanic Federation
Corporations
El Diario/la prensa
Glaxo Smith Kline
Gilead
GNYHA
Intramed
Janssen
Macy’s
Merck
NBC 4HD
New York –Presbyterian
NYU Silver School of Social Work
Orasure Technologies
Pfizer
Phrma
Telemundo
ViiV Healthcare
Visiting Nurse Services of New York
WABC
Wilhelmina
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