This year, I am a team leader for the 25th Annual NY AIDS Walk | FACES NY TEAM # 0638. I would like to personally invite you to join me on Sunday, May 16th at 8:45AM at the FACES Office 317 Lenox Avenue (125th x 126th Street).
My personal goal is to collect $25 from 250 people. Help me achieve my goal!!!
MEGA Management, GET DOWN, The Future has partnered with FACES NY, a New York-based non-profit (formerly the Minority Task Force on Aids) that is celebrating its 25th year in the fight against HIV/AIDS and providing care to the community. "It has been an honor to work on the GET DOWN campaign with such a dedicated person as Kim Ford", says Violet Tabor, Executive Director of FACES NY. "FACES NY is committed to providing safer-sex education within a framework of addressing the health concerns that impact our urban youth of today." FACESNY will serve as the “clearing house” in the New York City area to refer and provide answers about testing and counseling from teens, young adult and families in need. Outside of New York City, there will be a list of testing and counseling centers and help lines by state listed on the project’s MySpace page and blog where visitors can type in their zip code and find out the closest help centers in their area.
To kick off the 25th year partnership, a contingent from the GET DOWN project will walk with the FACESNY team in New York’s AIDS Walk on May 16, 2010. To find out more about how to support the FACESNY/GET DOWN team, check out GET DOWN blog, getdownpsa.blogspot.com, and Facebook page, facebook.com/getdownpsa.
Lionqueen 192 Productions, Inc., FACES NY Inc. and Bleu Life Media today announced the release of the GET DOWN public service announcement and accompanying HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. GET DOWN, written, produced and directed by Kim J. Ford(Lionqueen 192 Productions, Inc.), is an edgy new HIV/AIDS PSA that candidly portrays sexually active youth of various sexual identities who are experimenting with multiple sexual partners and the consequences they deal with as a result. The PSA also features celebrities Dawn Richard (of Dirty Money and formerly of Danity Kane/MTV’s Making The Band), Demarco Majors (LOGO’s Shirts & Skins), and Siri Music artist Stefani Vara, who lent their time and voices to the project.
After leaving a corporate marketing job in March 2008, Ford was inspired by the writing of her then 16-year old god-daughter, Chantel Reid, whose sex- and HIV/AIDS-focused blog entry, “Coming Out” (http://www.teendiariesonline.com/blog/?p=452), encouraged her to step out of the comfort zone and do something. “After doing some research on the statistics of HIV/AIDS and sexual behaviors among young people, I had to get involved,” said Ford. “Having spent more than 16 years marketing to the youth consumer at both VIBE Magazine and a leading experiential marketing agency, I just felt it was my turn to give back,” she concluded.
The statistics are startling from various health organizations. According to the most recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) report, released in 2009, as of 2007 African Americans accounted for the majority of the estimated number of AIDS diagnoses made during 2007. As of 2006, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) reported that one in two sexually active persons will contract an STD/STI by the age of 25, and one in four teens will contract an STD/STI. In fact, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavioral Survey 1991-2007 states that 47% of high school students have had sexual intercourse and among Hispanic and African American (“Black”) youth those statistics are even higher at 52% and 66.5% respectively. As of the 2005 report, of those surveyed, 6.2% have had their first sexual intercourse experience before age 13, and while 89.5% have been taught about AIDS and HIV infection in school, only 61.5% are using condoms.
GET DOWN is partnered with FACES NY, a New York-based non-profit (formerly the Minority Task Force on Aids) that is celebrating its 25th year in the fight against HIV/AIDS and providing care to the community. "It has been an honor to work on the GET DOWN campaign with such a dedicated person as Kim Ford", says Violet Tabor, Executive Director of FACES NY. "FACES NY is committed to providing safer-sex education within a framework of addressing the health concerns that impact our urban youth of today." FACESNY will serve as the “clearing house” in the New York City area to refer and provide answers about testing and counseling from teens, young adult and families in need. Outside of New York City, there will be a list of testing and counseling centers and help lines by state listed on the project’s MySpace page and blog where visitors can type in their zip code and find out the closest help centers in their area.
To kick off the 25th year partnership, a contingent from the GET DOWN project will walk with the FACESNY team in New York’s AIDS Walk on May 16, 2010. To find out more about how to support the FACESNY/GET DOWN team, check out GET DOWN blog, getdownpsa.blogspot.com, and Facebook page, facebook.com/getdownpsa.
On Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 7:00pm, The Center NYC LGBT Community Center located at 208 West 13th Street, NY, NY 10011, in association with Catch A Dream Entertainment and, The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry of Berkeley, CA will screen the powerful and thought provoking documentary entitled: For Faith, For Love, FOREVER.
As the presidential inauguration in 2009 came to a close, millions of people around the world witnessed a historical event in time; however, 2,500 miles due west there is division in California where the highly publicized Proposition 8 appeared on the general election ballot in November 2008. The proposition eliminated the right for same sex couples to marry, and has been fiercely debated over the past several years, Civil Rights!
The future of marriage equality was discussed during a Town Hall Meeting at First Congregational Church of Oakland, CA and documented by filmmaker Nefertiti Strong. The documentary, in final negotiations to be narrated by Rodney Chester, the lead actor of Logo’s hit movie Noah’s Arc – Jumping the Broom, explores the debate on same-sex marriage in the African-American community and its inclusion of the black church. Despite media portrayals suggesting complete disapproval, African-American clergy strongly believe in allowing people to live “in Spirit and in Truth” in regards to their God-given identities.
The Town Hall discussion, sponsored by the San Francisco Foundation and the Haas Jr. Fund, brought “dialogue and people together to work out issues in their communities,” said Reverend Roland Stringfellow, the event’s organizer, gay rights activist and Executive Producer of For Faith, For Love, FOREVER. “What the film 'For Faith, For Love, FOREVER' seeks to do, through the lens of the African-American church context, is to give courage to people of faith to address open and honestly the issue of being 'in the life' and the ways to find a way back to church communities we love."
Over the past year, the HOT button issue has been gay marriage. Strong believes the recording of the documentary has shed light onto a very important issue; however, gives people who may not been in attendance a chance to weigh in on the issues. “The beauty of film has captured a moment in time forever, that generations can not only see what happened, but understand why you did something,” Strong said. Strong is president and founder of Catch a Dream, Inc. a TV/Film production based in Los Angeles and New York. The Center is hosting a fundraiser for the film in New York City LGBT Center and will screen the youth-focused 2010 HIV/AIDS PSA Campaign “Get Down” written and directed by Kim J. Ford of Lionqueen 192, Productions, Inc and FACES NY Inc.
