REACH LA NEWS

It is truly amazing to look at all the work that REACH LA accomplished in 2009: 25 young men attended the Ovahness Men’s Retreat; 200 women and men attended the Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day conference, 300 youth attended the Fire & Ice Skate Party, Legends from West Coast helped us produce six Ovahness Academy Workshops; 25 RLA volunteers ran HIV, STD prevention games at Oakwood’s Glove Affair Dance; three G2G representatives attended Reproductive Freedom Day in Sacramento; two G2G Leaders went to the western region reproductive justice advocacy training with Choice USA; one G2G Leader went to Washington DC for public policy training; one staff person graduated from the HIV Prevention Leadership Institute in Atlanta; three Ovahness Leaders went to NAESM Conference in Atlanta; one staff attended US Conference on AIDS in San Francisco; one staff went to SisterSong Membership Meeting in Washington DC and educated legislators on healthcare reform; 400 people attended the Ovahness Ball 4: L’Acte Finale; staff trained 50 volunteers to run RLA HIV prevention games for 1,300 LA area youth at Macy’s Passport Fashion Inform Night; staff and leaders raised $600 by walking in 2009 AIDS Walk LA; one G2G Leader went to Swaziland with Project Africa; one Ovahness Leader was awarded the Colin Higgins Courage Award; one Ovahness Leader received the Millennium Scholarship for college; staff provided HIV testing and counseling to about 50 people since beginning in July; staff trained 20 peer health advocates who then took over 200 friends and family members to HIV testing; 60 young men and resource volunteers attended the Ovahness Summit to develop personal goals for self and community improvement; six college interns helped develop video projects with RLA Leaders for the newly developed RLA YouTube channel (Ovahness TV); and close to 60 people attended the RLA holiday party where 4 Ovahness Leaders were promoted, two volunteers were acknowledged and 2 individuals and one coalition group were celebrated. One staff member was honored by In the Meantime; another was honored by Connect to Protect Coalition; 4 staff members became certified HIV Testing Counselors; one staff member completed Phemobotomy 1 licensing. One staff member completed graduate school, another complete his BA from CSUDH. And although REACH LA went from 9 staff members to 3 full-time staff at the end of July 2009, RLA continued to produce new projects, events and community resources with help from its many loyal friends, leaders and peer health advocates! Congratulations everyone on all the accomplishments - we made it to 2010 and REACH LA is moving ahead. The Board, Staff, Leaders and volunteers would like to thank our generous supporters who have helped our organization this past year. We are optimistic that better times are ahead.