Our Mission
AIDS Alabama devotes its energy and resources statewide to helping people with HIV/AIDS live healthy, independent lives and works to prevent the spread of HIV.
Who We Are
AIDS Alabama was incorporated in 1986 with a mission to serve persons with HIV and to prevent the spread of HIV. In 1988, AIDS Alabama was awarded a grant from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to perform a needs assessment and trend analysis for persons living with HIV in the greater Birmingham area. This comprehensive research involved the University of Alabama at Birmingham, persons living with the virus, health care providers, mental health providers, social service agency directors, representatives from the City of Birmingham and Jefferson County, bio-statisticians, social workers in the HIV area, volunteers and HIV community representatives. This exercise provided the basis for many of the relationships with community resources still held by AIDS Alabama today, as well as providing the basis for formations of methodologies to work to prevent the spread of HIV, one of the founding missions of AIDS Alabama.
AIDS Alabama began providing housing and supportive services in 1993 with the opening of a 3-bedroom transitional house for multiply diagnosed, low-income persons with HIV/AIDS. Through our permanent and transitional housing programs, AIDS Alabama provided more than 48,000 nights of housing to low income, HIV-positive persons in the past year.
The State of Alabama awarded AIDS Alabama the first state funds related to HIV disease focused on prevention. AIDS Alabama quickly emerged as an experienced grant administrator for federal and state funds and as a lead provider of prevention education services to the State of Alabama. At this juncture, AIDS Alabama's Board of Directors encouraged the agency's development by expanding AIDS Alabama's mission of service to the community to:
a) Provide housing for those with HIV in the Birmingham area
b) Secure and administer grants for care of persons with HIV statewide
c) Specialize in targeted prevention education programs
