The annual grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to STAND, which lost its funding for HIV testing earlier this year, starts Oct. 1 and runs until 2015.
The Decatur-based nonprofit, which lost its funding for HIV testing earlier this year, has been awarded a $300,000 annual grant from the Department of Health and Human Services in support of its HIV testing and prevention programs.
The annual grant, which starts Oct. 1, will run until 2015.
Charles “Skip” Sperling, founder and executive director of Standing to Achieve New Directions, said the funds will go toward “Project Getting Connected 2,” which will bolster HIV testing and prevention efforts.
“We’re very happy with the award,” Sperling said. “This grant allows us to continue our now more than 10-year mission of providing critical HIV counseling and testing services in South DeKalb.”
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, who supported the grant application, congratulated Sperling and STAND on receiving the HHS grant.
He said the group, which has offices on Covington Highway, can point to many success stories.
“STAND’s work is helping people live healthier, happier and more productive lives,” he said.
STAND focuses on HIV, domestic violence and substance abuse intervention and prevention services as well as comprehensive re-entry services for men who have been incarcerated.
Sperling, who was a community epidemiologist testing people for HIV in Fulton County, launched STAND in October 1998 to work with men with STDs near the Kensington MARTA station in Decatur.
About the same time, his wife, the late Faith Brown Sperling, also an epidemiologist, launched Our Common Welfare to test people for HIV infection and support those with positive results.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded Our Common Welfare’s HIV testing program, shuttered the organization in 2008 in the wake of her death and shifted its programs and staff to STAND.
For more information, to donate or to volunteer, visit www.standinc.com or call 404-288-4668.
Post a Comment