AIDS Community Resources offers new programs

SYRACUSE — AIDS Community Resources (ACR) added several new programs last year to its established set of services. And this year, the organization is traveling down a greener path.

Although ACR already catered to the youth community through programs like the Teens AIDS Task Force and Q Center, in 2011 it established a Youth Services Division. Created in response to strong growth in participation, the Youth Division reaches about 6,800 young people.

ACR also launched three other programs last year. The Syringe Exchange Program, approved and funded by the New York State Department of Health, provides syringes to people who use needles, including illegal drug users. Community Health Advocates is a new group of educators who will explain all health-insurance options to anyone interested. And the new Criminal Justice Initiative provides comprehensive HIV, STD, and hepatitis prevention programs for inmates in eight New York State correctional facilities.

Case management remains ACR’s primary service. At any given time, the nonprofit has a caseload of about 250 clients, says Michael Crinnin, executive director of AIDS Community Resources. It’s possible, however, that ACR isn’t reaching all the people in the area that need help. One reason is that AIDS is still a sensitive issue, and people won’t ask for help, but also because of the way the disease is tracked. Since day one, the disease has been counted in the county of diagnosis, so Crinnin says it’s hard to know an exact number of those with the HIV/AIDS in the area. 

However, the most recent data from the state’s HIV/AIDS Surveillance Annual Report showed that in 2009, 76 individuals were diagnosed with HIV and 64 with AIDS in the nine-county area that ACR serves. Nearly 2,900 individuals in the nine-county area were living with HIV or AIDS as of December 2009, according to the data.

Another factor affecting the exact number of those in the area with HIV/AIDS is people migrating. One thing Crinnin has noticed since he started as executive director in 1989 is that many individuals with HIV/AIDS moved to this region from bigger cities because their families live here. Some also come here because the area has better health services. 

Protecting the environment

One goal ACR has for 2012 is to “go green” and it has two staff members, Lisa Mulcahey and Ekrem Berbatovci, spearheading this initiative. “If we do our homework, we ought to be able to do this,” says Crinnin. “It’s something we should have done a long time ago.”

Though still in its beginning stages, Mulcahey and Berbatovci have attended training sessions that advise business on how to go green and have discussed green office products with supplier W.B. Mason. “We’ve also been in contact with OCCRA to discuss recycling needs as well as being registered with TerraCycle which will allow us to recycle cookie packaging, drink pouches, candy wrappers, and snack food wrappers in exchange for money-back with their point system,” says Mulcahey, executive administrative assistant for AIDS Community Resources.

TerraCycle is a global company that creates recycling programs for previously non-recyclable or hard-to recycle waste.

While ACR’s green endeavor was not initially about money, Crinnin says it might allow the nonprofit to win grant funds for organizations that are certified green.

For its last fiscal year, ending June 30, 2011, ACR’s revenue totaled $3.8 million. Government grants provided more than 60 percent of the revenue, with special events, donations, Medicaid, and community grants making up the remaining sources of revenue. The current budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year is $4.4 million. Seventy-five cents of every dollar goes to ACR’s support, prevention, and youth services. 

The nonprofit employs 77 full-time individuals and has six office locations, providing services to nine counties. It rents the 9,000-square-foot building that houses the main office at 627 W. Genesee St. in Syracuse. ACR also rents the 3,600-square-foot building next door that is home to the Q Center.