Yvette A. Flunder
FOUNDATION
The staff of the YA Fl under Foundation has been working together since 1986 when they collectively designed a program which became a Northern California model for promoting AIDS education in the African American community. The programs soon expanded to include housing, policy advisory, care coordination, direct services, and an abundance of support services.
The services of YAFF began with HIV education, advocacy and a variety of support and housing options for individuals living with HIV disease on both sides of the Bay. Many were categorically the first of their kind.
In Oakland, Hazard-Ashley House was a transitional housing program providing coordinated, comprehensive, psychosocial support services for homeless HIV-positive men, historic as the first Alameda County HIV housing program founded by an African American faith community.
Walker House Residential Care Facility for the Chronically Ill was the first and only licensed 24-hour supportive housing program targeting multiple diagnosed persons living with disabling HIV disease or at end-stage in Alameda County. As the HIV epidemic became less lethal, YAFF added long-term supportive housing services including HIV rapid testing, mentoring, partner notification and substance abuse recovery services on-site. Today, Walker House is permanent supportive housing for people living with HIV, with a strong substance abuse recovery component.
Restoration House was a 24-hour dual-diagnosis facility with coordinated HIV support and drug recovery services for HIV-positive African American women, including Transgender women. Services includes
attendant care, nutrition, and medication management, coordinated medical and HIV support services, onsite psychosocial case management, on- and offsite substance abuse counseling, spiritual support and 24-hour staff for medical emergencies and crisis intervention. Restoration House was San Francisco's first formal collaboration between an HIV service provider and a woman's substance abuse program -YAFF and The Iris Center Women's Counseling and Recovery Services.
The Ark House, born of three consecutive years of providing the only emergency winter shelter programs in San Francisco County aimed specifically at young adults, was the first emergency transitional housing program for sexual minority young adults located in the Castro district of San Francisco. It houses up to 15 young adults between the ages of 18 and 23, providing on site services as well as referrals to a comprehensive network of supportive services.
YAFF provided technical assistance to the Black Coalition on AIDS for the creation of Rafiki House, the first minority-operated HIV Program in San Francisco, and in addition was a key participant in the creation of the AIDS Housing Plan and Quality Standards for HIV/AIDS Housing, sponsored by San Francisco and Alameda Counties and the City of Oakland.
YAFF is a leader in public policy and advocacy, developing platforms from which to address HIV from political, ethnic, gender, economic and service perspectives. From 1986 until the present, the agency has held memberships in: the Alameda County Shelter+ Care Consortium, African American AIDS Coalition, African American Interfaith Alliance on AIDS, Ryan White HIV CARE Consortium, Alameda County State of Emergency Task Force, San Francisco Inter-religious Coalition on AIDS, the San Francisco HIV/AIDS Planning and Prevention Council and more.
At State and national levels, YAFF is a past member of the State of California's Education and Prevention Planning Council, California Title II Ryan White Planning Council, and State Assemblywoman Barbara Lee's 13th District Legislative Proposal Planning Subcommittees on HIV Housing and Women's Services Delivery. The agency has past or current representation on the National African American Church
Caucus on AIDS, National Black Justice Coalition, National African American Church Caucus on AIDS, Human Rights Campaign, National Minority AIDS Council and the AIDS National Interfaith Network.
At the recent invitation of the White House, YAFF represented African Americans at the National AIDS Roundtable and holds a seat on the Presidential Advisory Counsel on HIV/AIDS. YAFF is a National Advisor to the Congressional Black Caucus, and advises the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention on a variety of national and faith-based HIV initiatives.
YAFF received the first Northern California HIV/AIDS education and prevention training grant from the State of California targeted at men who have sex with men and high-risk youth in Alameda County, and directed at faith communities. The original model has been replicated locally and nationally, with more than 40 topical curricula modules that respond culturally, linguistically, and developmentally to the needs of the African American community. Topics range from and include: HIV and Pastoral Care, HIV and Stigma, HIV and Substance Use and Abuse, AIDS Can Be Prevented, HIV in Black America, Black Church Organizing: Creating HIV Ministries, Non-Profit Development, and Sexuality and Underserved Youth in Communities of Color. Recent augmentations include modules on mental health, nutrition management, alternative treatments, and relapse prevention.
Other education material include the development of media, educational and outreach materials and resources for faith-based presentations including: "Let the Healing Begin," a six-part HIV training guide, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published by YAFF; development of HIV and AIDS peer educator HIV/AIDS related training materials, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase volunteerism in America and volunteers for People Living With AIDS; and educational and evaluation materials for prevention intervention and recovery counseling to underserved populations including one-on-one peer support and group meetings/workshops format.
Historically, YAFF was an awardee and presenter at the inaugural National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) National Skills Building Conference, and consulted with Balm in Gilead's HIV/AIDS prevention program and drafted one of the initial HIV education curricula for The National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS (formerly known as The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS and The Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS). YAFF is a certified coordinator of the Black Church Week of Prayer Services for the Healing of AIDS in the East Bay.
YAFF was invited to present the poster "HIV Education in the African American Church" at the 8th International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, and its Let the Healing Begin: Black Church HIV/AIDS Training Curriculum and Training Video Script was adopted as a model and distributed by the Centers for Disease Control.
As Alameda Country declared that AIDS to be a public health emergency in the African American community, YAFF developed and implemented SOEPI: The State of Emergency Preaching Institute. SOEPI was a model project funded by the State of California Office of AIDS and Bristol Myers-Squibb, to conduct outreach and provide technical assistance to African American Church leaders in HIV awareness and education.
YAFF was the Centers for Disease Control's first Faith Technical Assistance Provider in the Western Region with its LEAD by Faith: Leadership, Education, Assistance and Development program, an HIV education and prevention train-the-trainer initiative directed towards Black Church leaders.
YAFF was co-producer with Bill Graham Presents for In Concert Against AIDS, the first ever Gospel AIDS benefit concert. The agency's annual HIV Education Workshops at the 40,000-member Gospel Music Workshop of America, representing the leadership of the African American Church and Gospel Music recording/media industries, paved the way for One Voice: Gospel Artists Respond To AIDS. One Voice was a national education campaign in collaboration with the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Bobby Jones Gospel, BET, Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Seminar, Balm in Gilead, and Community Supportive Living Systems. YAFF produced four more Gospel benefit concerts, including Testifying for Life, the largest Gospel music HIV education and fundraising event ever held. America's most popular contemporary gospel artists have performed at YAFF-sponsored concerts and recording projects including Edwin Hawkins, Walter Hawkins, Richard Smallwood, Bobby Jones, Tramaine Hawkins, Darryl Coley, Jennifer Holiday, Leila Hathaway, Tonex, Patti LaBelle and many more.
YAFF was the lead agency for Tapestry, a collaboration of education, prevention and treatment information service providers meeting together with faith-based leaders on a regular basis. The organization also hosted a series of West Coast HIV education and prevention events, notably AIDS is No Laughing Matter, the first West Coast Regional education and prevention conference attended by more than 250 participants and faith leaders, and "Taking a Stand," the Bay Area's first African American youth leadership summit. Taking a Stand was a multi-media conference requested and organized by young people themselves, with YAFF's training, logistical support and technical assistance.
YAFF sponsors biennial fact-finding and service trips to South Africa and Zimbabwe for African American faith leaders, medical and social work professionals and community activists, and raises funds and supplies labor to the Mother of Peace Orphanage in Harare, Zimbabwe, independently and in cooperation with the Allen Temple Baptist Church HIV/AIDS Ministry in Oakland, California.
YAFF has co-sponsored the visits of several South African HIV/AIDS missions, AIDS political action personnel and performing groups, and supports fund raising efforts for The Children of Africa, benefiting children orphaned and women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Yvette A. Flunder
FOUNDATION
8400 Enterprise Way
Oakland, CA 94621