» To visit the Village Care website, please click here.

Over the last 12 months the Zwickler family and the PZ Foundation have donated money to Village Care for general purposes. We have decided to highlight two of their many programs—one is their combination with an organization that we have funded over the long term—The Momentum AIDS Project—and the other is their project in one of our favorite places—Brooklyn.

Emma Devito—the CEO of Village Care—determined that the best use for our funds was for the Red Hook Community Service Center, a center in Brooklyn run as part of Village Care. Luvenia Suber is the director of this Center, and tells the story of how it evolved.






Luvenia Suber 		The Daily News featured Luvenia Suber and the Red Hook Community Service Center in an article by Clem Richardson.

To read the article, please click on the photo to the left.


In early May 2005 I started walking the streets of Red Hook—without business cards—looking to meet all community organizations and to sign up families in need of services. On May 24, we opened the doors and 45 people showed up, and by June 28, 75 people from the community and Community Board organizations attended our Grand Opening.

About 10% of the people who signed up for our first Parent Program were HIV positive, and others had various issues such as substance abuse and poverty. Each parent had a goal to accomplish by the end of the one year, which they agreed to at the beginning. Examples of such goals were employment, receiving a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) or finding and getting therapy for a mentally related problem.

In addition to the Parent Program, we also hold weekly and monthly clinics/workshops where anyone can attend. The Parent Program was funded by the City of New York, Department of Youth and Community Development; but the general outreach is funded by Village Care. The way we keep the parents coming is by incentives and hard work. We gave out turkeys before Thanksgiving, thanks to local Brooklyn politicians and community leaders; we receive food from Fairway, the giant supermarket in the area; and we distributed gifts on Mother's day. We also gave the children of the parents Christmas gifts after they wrote Dear Santa letters. This idea and generosity came from Family First, a local organization, and Community Board 6. Lastly, another important incentive was Village Care giving us 15 new computers to give to chidren who graduated junior high and went to high school.

We are on our third 45 parent group, and allow those from prior groups who need more time to continue to work toward their goal. We have also begun to develop other groups such as the Sister Group, which consists of 15 women living with HIV, and the Family Institute Group, which meets once a week and motivates family members to talk with each other within a group setting. Our open to the public monthly clinics are critical as we offer free testing, counseling and even help parents create resumes—we have 4 computers at our facility. We also let the parents use Village Care's flex employment agency to seek out jobs, and we have successfully placed several of our parents in jobs at Ikea. Our motto is Come for Lunch, and Stay for Answers. Our programs are working, but there is much more outreach to be done including fundraising...The community model works...


The Red Hook Community Service Center is a welcoming and receptive place where individuals can come and learn about many helpful community and government programs that are available to assist them. Programs include case management, home care, AIDS day treatment, free workshops on health & education, family programs, temp and temporary-to-permanent employment services, AIDS long-term care, HIV counseling and entitlement assistance. The center also serves an entry way into the Village Care of New York Network of AIDS Services. Village Care of New York is a community-based, not-for-profit service organization serving older adults, persons living with HIV/AIDS and individuals in need of medical and rehabilitation services. Guided by the people it serves, they provide leadership to improve the health and quality of life of the diverse communities they serve and the quality of care and well-being of the people they serve. Its mission is to create a caring and supportive environment in which all of those they serve, including their families and partners, are respected for their uniqueness. Village Care encourages all persons to treat themselves and others with kindness and respect. Good physical and mental health is nurtured by accepting people as they are and by engaging individuals in an interactive process of healing body, mind and spirit in a therapeutic environment. Village Care recognizes and supports self-directed care—allowing the people they serve to maintain their independence and control their own care. The programs offered reflect the experience from many years of assisting people as they face the physical, emotional and spiritual challenges associated with illness, aging, disability and death. Village Care is guided by these experiences and the knowledge gained in a partnership with the people they serve to make this mission a reality for those in its care.



The Momentum Project Video
Please click on the image above to watch a short video about the Momentum Project.



   
Momentum Article
by Emma DeVito

To read the article, please click on the image to the left.


Village Care of New York and The Momentum Project joined forces in 2008 in order to enhance services for persons living with HIV/AIDS, particularly those who are poor and underserved. Momentum's clients are among the city's most disenfranchised persons living with HIV/AIDS, and this affiliation offers them an opportunity to interact with the caring and comprehensive services of Village Care. Working together, Momentum and Village Care have taken an important step is assuring that needy persons living with HIV/AIDS can get connected, and stay connected, with HIV services. This helps prevent people from "falling through the cracks" of the care system. Together with Momentum, Village Care reached out to and served nearly 6,000 HIV-positive individuals in 2008. The combining of back-office functions like finance, HR, and purchasing will create cost savings, and the blending of both organizations' experience and expertise will improve client services.
—Emma DeVito, President/CEO Village Care

The PZ foundation strongly believes in the collaboration model, and the alliance between these two organizations should prove to be an exceptionally productive way to help HIV+ individuals. The PZ Foundation has had a long involvement with Momentum, and in 2004, Allen Zwickler was presented with the Momentum Inspiration Award (click here to learn more). They were also recently featured in an article in the New York Sun.

» For more information about the Momentum Project, please visit their website by clicking here.


Please click PLAY to watch a short video celebrating National AIDS Testing Day, Village Care's 30th Anniversary and NAPWA's 25th Anniversary
In September 2008, Village Care of New York and the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), began a partnership to conduct coordinated advocacy and public policy. The partnership seeks to develop public policies using the joint expertise of Village Care and that of the nation's only organization solely devoted to representing the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS. NAPWA guards against public defamation and stigmatization of those with AIDS. Village Care is recognized as one of the nation's leading HIV care and service providers, and together, these two organizations are working on a wide variety of public policy activities.