Update on A&PI Wellness Center's Community Town Hall

Thank you to all the community members—our clients, partners and supporters—who attended our Community Town Hall meeting Thursday, January 28th. We appreciated your openness, honest feedback and courage—we heard you loud and clear. Your feedback is crucial as we transition, moving forward with our vision of a healthy A&PI community. For our Living Well Network clients, I will continue to meet with you as we implement our plan. Check back with us here for more updates and announcements, and on our Facebook page.

We value and share your commitment and concern for the A&PI community. Thank you. Please remember my door is always open. You can contact me at lance@apiwellness.org if you have any questions or comments.

You can read more about the recent staff and service reductions below, and in the Bay Area Reporter.

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR RECENT STAFF & SERVICE REDUCTIONS

Our San Francisco office doors are wide open.
We are focusing resources to protect and preserve HIV Care Services in San Francisco.
We are committed to the future of HIV Care Services and our mission.

1. What's going on?

   • We are focusing resources on protecting and preserving our San Francisco HIV services with reduced HIV Care services and staff.
   • We closed our Oakland and Daly City offices effective January 15th, 2010 due to significant funding reductions.
   • We laid off 5 HIV Care services staff members.
   • We still have case managers, a licensed clinical psychotherapist, a peer advocate and a team of trained interns to meet your needs in San Francisco.
   • HIV CARE SERVICES ARE OPEN IN SAN FRANCISCO. CLIENTS WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE UNINTERRUPTED HIV CARE SERVICES.
   • We continue to accept new clients in San Francisco, based on need and eligibility.

2. Who is affected?

   • Oakland and Daly City clients are being transitioned to other services available in their respective counties.
   • San Francisco clients will continue to receive uninterrupted HIV Care services. Current clients will need to make appointments with their case managers to see their providers. If you don’t know who your case manager is, please ask to speak to Malou Valdez, our Interim HIV Care Services Program Manager at 415-292-3400.

3. Why did you do this?

   • These decisions focus our resources on preserving and protecting our HIV Care Services in San Francisco.
   • These decisions were a direct response to a budget crisis in HIV Care Services that jeopardized the future of all our services. If we did not respond quickly and definitively, we would have to shut down the agency in 2 years.

4. What does this mean to me?

   • Current San Francisco clients will continue to receive the full array of case management, peer advocacy and treatment advocacy services already available.
   • New client intakes will continue in San Francisco, based on need and eligibility.
   • Oakland and Daly City clients have been transitioned to services in their counties.