October 31, 2024

Community News

News from BCA/Rafiki Wellness
December 14, 2012

Newsletter of the Black Coalition on AIDS/Rafiki Wellness
December 13, 2012

With Your Support, We Can Build a Healthy Community.
    

 

Dear Family and Friends:

 

May the hope and expanded possibilities of the season be yours in the coming New Year!

 

With your support, I believe those same sentiments of hope are possible for BCA/Rafiki Wellness and the community we serve in the coming year. As most of you know, the agency signed a new lease with the Port of San Francisco and moved into our new facility at 601 Cesar Chavez Street, between Third Street and Pier 80, creating a spacious hub for health and wellness activities.

 

The move was challenging but worth the effort, thanks mainly to the volunteers, donors and community partners who helped to make it happen. BCA/Rafiki Wellness will host a "Volunteers, Donors and Community Partners Appreciation Lunch" on Saturday, January 26, 2013. We would love to see you there. 

 

Since 1986, BCA has epitomized community-driven health activism through its health advocacy, health case management, health education and transitional housing services to address the unmet needs of San Francisco's African American population, a community facing a disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS. Since 2004, BCA has steadily expanded its service menu beyond HIV/AIDS to include health and wellness via its Rafiki Wellness program, targeting those coping with high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease and other health conditions as BCA/Rafiki Wellness.

 

Our community faces a sobering reality:

  • In 2010, African Americans represented only 6% of the City's total population but constituted 14% of all people living with HIV/AIDS and 34.7% of all people with a hepatitis C diagnosis in San Francisco.
  • In 2010, the rate of diagnosed HIV infection was highest among Black men (151 per 100,000 population), followed by Latino men (130 per 100,000 population) and lowest among White men (94 per 100,000 population) in San Francisco.
  • The disparity in AIDS is particularly evident among Black women because they comprised 45% of the 1,160 women diagnosed with AIDS through 2008 in the City.
  • Between 2006 and 2009, Black women in the San Francisco-Greater Bay Area represented the highest incidence rates for triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and difficult form to treat.
  • A 2009 report shows that 35.5% of San Francisco's African American population was obese (and at risk for diabetes), compared with 22.2% of Latinos and 13.2% of Whites who were obese.
  • In 2009, 37.5% of San Francisco's African Americans had high blood pressure, compared with 24.3% of Latinos and 21% of Whites.

We are determined to reverse these troubling trends. A contribution from you will enable us to connect more people with treatment and care through BCA/Rafiki Wellness's linkage network and provide more health-focused workshops and activities to empower our community to achieve better health outcomes.

 

Over the past year, BCA/Rafiki Wellness has maintained and integrated small contracts and grants, which have allowed us to provide health information, health education, health support and health advocacy services to more than 3,000 individuals. Our wellness service model--which includes health screenings, nutrition workshops, physical activity classes and more--is attracting regional and national attention. In our Rafiki Wellness Passport program, a significant number of participants are adopting healthy eating habits and are regularly participating in physical activity and nutrition classes at BCA/Rafiki Wellness.

 

The economy is recovering, but BCA/Rafiki Wellness continues to experience funding shortfalls. Embracing a "community first" strategy, we have cut back on administrative costs to continue providing our clients and participants quality services and programs.

 

Our next steps require support from you. Your tax-deductible donation will be instrumental in helping our community thrive. With your contribution, we will implement additional workshops and classes, provide more health screening services and conduct more community forums. Moreover, your donation will help fund equipment and labor to finalize our move to BCA/Rafiki Wellness's new location. Please make your check or money order payable to BCA and mail to 601 Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, CA 94124. Alternatively, you can make a secure, online donation by clicking here.

 

Please know that we deeply appreciate any amount that your heart encourages you to give. On behalf of our clients, board and staff, we thank you for your generosity and have a wonderful holiday season.

 

Sincerely,

 

Perry L. Lang

Executive Director

BCA logo.

 

Working to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and eliminate health disparities in Black and marginalized communities.

Make a secure online contribution.
It's About You! Round Two.
 
Thanks to generous funding from the East Bay Community Foundation through a fund established by Kaiser Permanente, we are proud to announce the continuation of It's About You, a BCA project which promotes HIV awareness, HIV screening and linkage to medical care among San Francisco's Black and Latino youth populations. BCA is one of 10 organizations across Northern California selected to receive this grant to advance a mutual goal of preventing new infections in populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.

BCA will continue serving Black and Latino youth and, more importantly, expand It's About You to a broader target population, including individuals ages 30 and above, comprised of Black and Latino men and women, men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users and incarcerated people in the City jail in San Francisco.

It's About You mobilizes individuals to take personal responsibility for their health by providing access to HIV education and linkages to HIV screening and care. Through It's About You "we work to make health, and getting tested for HIV, a priority in a context when a person may not have a job, or a place to live, and to debunk the myth that it's just gay men or [intravenous] drug users who contract HIV," stated Adrian Tyler, BCA's Director of Development and Communications.

To learn more about this grant, click here. To learn more about It's About You at BCA, click here
Make a secure online contribution.
First Saturday

Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Location: 601 Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, CA 94124  

 

Score your own touchdown to better health at the First Saturday Health Party at BCA/Rafiki Wellness's new location.

 

The schedule is as follows:

  

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - C.A.M. (Complementary Alternative Medicine): Features Massage, Health Screenings and Acupuncture services.

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Yoga for Everyone: Strengthen and balance your body while regaining peace and calm.

10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Cooking 4 Life!: Chef Kevin Tucker will prepare healthy soul food dishes to satisfy the body and soul.


11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch & Table Talk: Engage in conversation focused on better health with members of the African American Community Health Equity Council.

 

Space is limited. To register or get more information, call Mark at (415) 615-9945, ext. 115, or send an email to communityorganizing@bcoa.org.

 

Click here to view the flyer.
 
The next First Saturday takes place on February 2.

First Saturday is eligible for Rafiki Wellness Passport Program activity points.

Free lunch provided.
 
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