Poetry was one of Phil's favorite ways to communicate. While the lines did not rhyme all the time, the message was rarely ambiguous. Our foundation abides by the same principles—what you see is what you get.

Phil was not only a poet, but also a teacher. As a college professor of Shakespeare and a high school English teacher, he loved to teach and took great pride in teaching people to communicate more effectively as a way to improve their lives. Both poetry and education were close to Phil's heart, and they are therefore close to the heart of this foundation. As such, we are proud to support the Zwickler Memorial Poetry Leadership Program—a program that has enriched the lives of its participants by facilitating education, poetry, and allowing these "poets" the beauty of free expression without boundaries.

In March 2005, AIDS Service Center NYC (ASC) received a grant from the Phil Zwickler Charitable and Memorial Foundation Trust to support the launching of a Poetry Leadership Program in conjunction with ASC's ongoing Creative Writing Workshop. With in-kind support from ASC, the program was a great success.

The Zwickler Memorial Poetry Leadership Program's primary goal was to cultivate the group facilitation and leadership skills of advanced participants in ASC's Creative Writing Workshop, so that these individuals would become able to lead future groups when the professional facilitator was not available to do so. This process also significantly developed the skills, confidence, and self-esteem of the Poetry Leaders themselves, reinforcing their recovery and advancing their personal development goals.

» To learn more about Phil's poetry, please click here.

» To learn more about the ASC poets and ASC, please click here.

The ASC Creative Writing Workshop, supported by the Phil Zwickler Memorial Foundation, is one of the many innovative programs AIDS Service Center NYC provides for people affected by HIV/AIDS. In this workshop, participants explore a rich array of poems, share their perceptions about these poems, and translate their thoughts and experiences into written form. In many ways, the Creative Writing Workshop is a microcosm of the agency as a whole: a safe space where people affected by HIV/AIDS can achieve serenity in the midst of chaos, challenges, and change.

With support from the Phil Zwickler Memorial Foundation, ASC has provided advanced training for workshop participants who exhibit leadership skills. In these trainings, ASC's "Poetry Leaders" have gained skills on planning and facilitating poetry workshops, increased their computer literacy, developed online research skills, and learned about publishing, book design, and editing. For me, reading the poems and watching the growth of the Poetry Leaders and other workshop participants is a humbling experience. Their wit, intelligence, compassion, and determination inspire me to sustain my advocacy for much-needed programs, services and resources. This grant from the Phil Zwickler Memorial Foundation is an example of the very best that public-private partnerships have to offer—bringing hope, changing lives, and expanding our sense of what is possible. Thank you, Zwickler family!

AIDS Service Center NYC is a multiservice community organization that carries out its mission of "helping many, one by one" by building community, connection and stability for people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS. From free counseling to HIV testing to support groups, housing assistance and escorts to medical appointments, ASC does whatever it takes to help individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS to survive and thrive.

As ASC's Executive Director/CEO since 1990, I am proud of our agency's many achievements and its array of dynamic programs that meet the needs of diverse communities in the context of an ever changing, increasingly challenging health care system.

Sharen I. Duke has 20 years of experience in the field of public health. Her work in program planning and evaluation, fundraising, budget management, policy development, training, and service delivery reflect her deep commitment to individuals and families living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. She has represented the needs of people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS at the city, state and federal levels, as a member of the Mayor's NYC HIV Planning Council and the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies' Member Advisory Council, and through Board membership on the New York AIDS Coalition and on the New York State Regional Community Service Programs.

The four ASC Poetry Leaders described below have been active participants in the ASC Creative Writing Workshop for more than three years. Their poems have appeared in numerous past editions of ASC's literary magazine, Situations, which is available at www.ascnyc.org/publications/situations.htm. All four are graduates of the Zwickler Memorial Poetry Leadership Program at ASC, and now guest-teach poetry workshops at the agency. (For more information about this ASC program, visit www.ascnyc.org)

Please click on the photos below to read more about the participants.