PFYnews: November 2015

November 9, 2015

PFY and NBLCA host PrEP Breakfast Forum for Health and Human Service Professionals from throughout Long Island

Pride for Youth in partnership with the National Black Leadership Commision (NBLCA)on AIDS held the breakfast forum, Are You Ready for PrEP: Bringing Health and Human Service Providers Together to Develop a Regional Plan for effective Implementation, on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 in Freeport, NY (flyer attached). Over 30 health and human professionals were in attendance and took part in some rich conversation about best practices for PrEP implementation here on LI! The goal of the forum and presentations were to focus on successes and challenges with PrEP implementation in Long Island, giving a brief overview of existing PrEP programs. Huge thanks to following organizations that participated in our presentations/panel discussion: NuHealth, NS-LIJ, AIDS Institute (NYC), Gilead, AIDS Institute (ADAP) and especially NBLCA!

Promotion for the Event

Event organizers, Pete Carney (PFY) and Rick-Anthony Richards Jr. (NBLCA) with our panel presenters from NuHealth, NS-LIJ, AIDS Institute and Gilead.

November 8, 2015

Meet our new Peer Navigators!!

In August of this year, Pride for Youth hired and trained 7 new Peer Navigators, all young gay/bisexual men, ages 17-24. Our Peer Navigators are reaching out to the LGBTQ youth community. They are providing workshops on HIV, STIs and PrEP/PEP. They are working hard to get the community involved in Pride for Youth and let young people know about the services available to them!

Pride for Youth Staff Presents at the NYS LGBT Beyond the Epidemic Conference in Albany

Pride for Youth staff were honored to be selected to present at the statewide LGBT Beyond the Epidemic Conference in Albany this past July. The conference, organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda and NYS AIDS Institute, brought together over 200 health and human service providers from throughout the state. PFY Assistant Drector, Tawni Engel presented on LGBTQ Substance Abuse from a Mental Health Perspective; Supervising Social Worker, Galo Cunto, presented on Harnessing Established Social Media Platforms to Engage YMSM; and Director, Pete Carney, co-presented with Demetre Daskalakis, Asst. Commissioner Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, NYC DOHMH, on PrEP/PEP.

PFY Asst. Director, Tawni Engel

PFY Supervising Social Worker, Galo Cunto

PFY Director, Pete Carney

PFY's Pride Invasion 2015!!!

For the first time ever, Pride for Youth took part in the Queens, Long Island and NYC Pride Parades in June 2015. "As our free and confidential services continue to expand beyond Long Island, into Queens, we felt what better time than Pride Month to raise awareness of our services that are available to LGBTQ young people and young adults, from throughout LI and Queens" stated PFY Director, Pete Carney. Much thanks to our many youth participants and community supporters who joined us to celebrate Pride throughout the month of June!!