Yes, participants come to us—but we also come to them, offering life-saving tools and services.

SRO (SINGLE RESIDENCE OCCUPANCY) HEALTH OUTREACH
Confronts homelessness and HIV/AIDS with critical home-delivered harm reduction services to homeless people living with HIV/AIDS who have been placed in SRO hotels for emergency shelter. Services include outreach, condoms and prevention materials, hygiene kits, education, counseling and medical triage.

STREET OUTREACH
Provides outreach to sex workers and to people who are recently released from Rikers Island and other correctional facilities. The mobile STREET team works in the community to make connections to health care services and provide on-the-spot materials like condoms, health literature and harm reduction tools, while also providing case management and advocacy to the community.

“Time heals, so I know I have a guardian angel.” MELISSA

I GUESS I GOT LUCKY. In 2005, a couple of CitiWide workers knocked on my door at the single residence occupancy (S.R.O.) hotel where I was staying, and asked if I’d like to join their support groups. Of course, I said “no” at first. At that time, I was all about ripping and running, and doing negative stuff. When I finally decided to check out CitiWide, the only thing I wanted to do was sleep on the couches. I wasn’t ready to change. Then, one staff member told me something that just clicked in my head, and I started going to groups regularly – maybe not every day, but twice a week at least. I was still dirty and dusty then, but I began learning about things like HASA and entitlements that helped me transform my life.

Right now, I come to CitiWide six days a week to do groups. I’m in the second cycle of Safety Counts too; it’s a good program – it helps me manage the way I have sex, so that I’m safer. I’ve also started working as a peer intern for Herizen, which has given me a lot of good information that I can use in the field. I hope to God they give me a little peer position here after I graduate!

I’m forty-one years old, and I’m still struggling with my addiction. I guess I would consider myself a “chronic relapser.” But since I’ve been coming to CitiWide, I’ve started to use a whole lot less, and taking better care of my health. All in all, CitiWide has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I’ve learned how to protect myself here. Time heals, so I know I have a guardian angel.

Participants on this website gave written consent to being depicted and quoted here. No inference should be drawn regarding the medical condition or HIV status of any individuals shown, named or quoted in this publication.