Housing Works Community Stories

Sammie J., Job Trainee

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:31:00

Hey there, I’m Schmid Jean-Louis, otherwise known as Sammie J. I was a COBRA case management client for four years, and now I am on staff at Housing Works! It wasn’t easy.

I first encountered the Second Life Job Training Program (JTP) in February 2005. I was just 19 when I decided that I wanted to do case management. I met the staff and took a liking to them immediately. I enjoyed learning from them. I had a lot of personal issues I had to work through such as being responsible in a demanding city where failure wasn’t an option as well as learning to accept having HIV.

I left Housing Works in October 2005 without completing JTP. Soon, I was a wreck. I had to go through some trying times in order to know that JTP was the best thing to happen to me. When I reapplied and did my interview in 2007, the question always came up: Are you really ready to complete this program?

I was unsure. The staff took to me as if I were their very own newborn baby and nurtured me to the man I am today. JTP provided me with a better understanding of myself, my status and what my heart was really telling me to do.

I graduated in the Spring 2008 class and am now employed with Brooklyn West COBRA. I am now content with living with HIV. Thanks to JTP, I am ready and willing to bestow the knowledge I’ve gained and lessons I’ve learned upon others like myself or who are at risk. I am honored to be a JTP graduate and now an employee in an organization that is for the people, by the people.

Sammie J.

Alesia, Case Management Client

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:21:00

By Hannah Thorne, COBRA Case Manager

As I sat down and begin to write about Alesia, my head was brimming with thoughts of all of her personal accomplishments. No sooner than typing those first words I received a tearful phone call from the Alesia herself, reporting that she had recently relapsed. It had been months, she said, and she didn’t know why she did it; she couldn’t contain her disappointment.

I met Alesia two years ago when I began working as her Case Manager; it was at a time when things were looking up for her. Although her children had been removed from her care, she was finally taking the steps necessary to put her life back together and get them back. She was attending a treatment program, abstaining from drugs, and diligently taking care of her health. Soon though, it became clear that her efforts were too late, and her parental rights were going to be terminated. Alesia retreated once again into despair. In the next few months I visited her faithfully. Occasionally she would let me in and we would chat about getting her out of the house, getting back into treatment, restarting her HIV care, anything. More often than not, however, she would talk to me from behind the door, “Not now Hannah, I don’t feel well, come back another time.” It took months of visits and ultimately a visit from the marshal to get Alesia out of the house.

Once out of the house, Alesia bloomed. She completed in-patient drug treatment, enrolled in an out-patient program, groups, individual counseling, every type of service one could imagine. Each month she proudly came in with another Narcotics Anonymous chip she had received, another certificate to show me.

But in that recent, tearful phone call she said the words that make me more proud than any of her other milestones could. “I know what to do Hannah,” she said. “I’ve done it before, and I can do it again, I’ll go right back to groups, right back to meetings, you’ll see.” I know we will.

Housing Works Member Spotlight: Beth Torstrick Ward

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:20:00

Satya Jewelry co-founder Beth Torstrick Ward wanted to use her thriving yoga-inspired jewelry business to promote Housing Works’ mission to end AIDS and homelessness.

“We like to support what we ourselves are touched by,” Torstrick Ward said. “Housing Works does a great job of combining shopping, giving back and cleaning out the closet.”

So the Satya teamed up with Housing Works to create the Housing Works Tree of Life Necklace, with all proceeds going to Housing Works. Since its creation in March, sale of the necklace has so far netted more than $2,500 toward lifesaving services such as “housing,“http://www.housingworks.org/services/housing/ medical and mental health care, and job training for Housing Works clients.

An added bonus? Satya Jewelry’s donation to Housing Works turned Torstick Ward into a Housing Works member, qualifying her for discounts at Housing Works Thrift Shops and Housing Works Bookstore Café.

Members at the Supporter level ($480 or $40/month) or above get a free pair of tickets to Fashion for Action Opening Night, November 19.

“Housing Works membership is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Torstrick Ward, who recently applied her membership discount to buy a fall Armani vest for herself and a set of Mark Twain books for her husband ‘s birthday at our Brooklyn Heights thrift shop.

Become a Housing Works member and get the gift that keeps on giving. Or for another gift, purchase the Housing Works Tree of Life Necklace for $48 at ShopHousingWorks.com and at all Satya boutiques.

Michael Hartzog 1957-2009

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:47:00

Michael was one of the first Housing Works clients to take up residence at our award-winning Keith D. Cylar House congregate living residence in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. Although he eventually lived independently, he remained an important presence at Cylar House, where residents and staff remember him as easygoing, helpful, and hardworking. When he wasn’t engaging in AIDS advocacy—Michael regularly attended Housing Works rallies and demonstrations—he loved to discuss his beloved New York Yankees. “He talked nothing but,” remembers Cylar office manager Kaisar Merhai. “We will miss him dearly.”

José Ortiz

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:57:00

Your support of Housing Works’ thriving businesses—check out our beautiful new Tribeca Thrift Shop location —not only raises money for our lifesaving HIV/AIDS services but provides life-changing jobs to Housing Works clients.

When José Ortiz was released from prison in 1996, he was HIV-positive, addicted to drugs and homeless. Ortiz became a Housing Works client and eventually enrolled in our Second Life Job Training Program (JTP). He has been a valued sales associate and donations sorter at Housing Works Thrift Shops for the last 11 years.

“Since joining Housing Works, my life has completely changed,” Ortiz says. “When you go through drug addiction you blame everyone but the right person.” Ortiz no longer uses drugs and has stable housing. His boss, Director of Operations Erica Hudson, says, “José‘s work ethic is amazing. He is such an asset to us.”

Ortiz is one of 261 JTP grads who have gone on to jobs at Housing Works with a guaranteed starting salary of $25,000 and full benefits.

To learn more about JTP or volunteer as a tutor, send an e-mail to hwvolunteers@gmail.com.

Niccolo Cataldi

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:27:00

Basic services like food, shelter and medical care are critical to Housing Works clients, but so are the ones that provide invaluable emotional support. Creative Arts Therapy, part of our Empowerment Wellness Program, helps our clients handle the emotional challenges of living with HIV. “Art Therapy is the No. 1 most important program for me,” says client Niccolo Cataldi. “You can express what’s going on in your life and see how other people are dealing with their emotions.”

Cataldi is a lifelong artist who came to New York from the Dominican Republic in 1987, thanks to a scholarship to study at Parsons. It was while working as an artist’s assistant in 1993 that he was diagnosed with HIV. “I got very sick in the beginning,” Cataldi says. “My T-cells were down to 212. My sisters, when I told them I had HIV, thought I would drop dead.” Cataldi educated himself about the disease, got medical help and has avoided serious illness since.

What most inspires Cataldi as an artist? He says he is just as likely to paint as he is to make a collage or sculpt. “My work is political, ironic…maybe I am a little bit sour!” he says with a laugh. Cataldi also draws inspiration from his colleagues in Creative Art Therapy, partly because of how at home he feels. “This is a place where I can share my feelings and feel comfortable about my status and who I am,” he says.

You only have to look at his amazing work to see it.

Bob Graubard

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:13:00

September 9 through 13 Bob Graubard will bike 500 miles over the course of five days for Ride FAR, an HIV/AIDS Bike-a-thon. And while he is anticipating aches and pains, he is enduring to support AIDS prevention and services and is expecting to raise thousands of dollars for Housing Works, more than qualifying him to become a Housing Works Member.

Ride FAR, which was founded 20 years ago, raises two-thirds of funding for two worthy AIDS organizations—the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project and Call the Action in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All of the 25 riders can choose another organization to support. Graubard chose Housing Works because he was impressed by our mission to fight the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness. None of the funding goes towards administrative costs of the ride.

“I’ve been in the real estate business for 20-something years, and I believe housing is the most essential part of anyone’s well-being,” Graubard said.

Graubard rode in Ride FAR in 2005, and while he’s nervous to ride again, he said knowing that the money goes to Housing Works and other worthy causes makes all the pain worth it.

“When my friend first told me about this, I thought he was insane. Now I’ve joined the insanity,” Graubard said. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it was also one of the best experiences of my life.”

Ride FAR begins September 9 in Provincetown, Massachusetts and ends September 13 in Stowe, Massachusetts.

If you want to ride in Ride FAR, go to ridefar.org. And even if you don’t want to race, you can still become a Housing Works Member. Don’t worry, you don’t have to ride 500 miles – all you have to do is contribute $10 a month to get 10 percent off at all Housing Works retail locations and other exclusive benefits.

Bali White Inspires

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:49:00

Bali White is Coordinator of Transgender Services at Housing Works. But she serves as more than just a support to the transgender women in her program— she’s an inspiration.

“I like how the girls are impacted by working with a member of their own community. I’m an example of what you can do,” said White, who is transgender. White is being honored by New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson at the LGBT Center on Tuesday for her work spearheading Housing Works pioneering services for HIV-positive and HIV-negative transgender New Yorkers, a population especially hard hit by the AIDS epidemic.

Through example, White shows her clients that there are other career options besides sex work available to transgender women.

“When I realized I was transgender, I thought that if you were trans, you had to be a prostitute. It was really sold to me together,” White said.

White was able to avoid sex work through a combination of timing, a strong support system, and a commitment to education. But she realizes that, “when most girls get offered that opportunity, they don’t have other options.”

She said sometimes clients are skeptical of her at first. “They can sense I’ve never used drugs. I’m a square, as they say,” White said, laughing. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve never been homeless or had to deal with a lot of the struggles that they’ve had.”

An extraordinary path

White was homeless when she first came to New York in 2000, after attending Howard University for a year. She originally hoped to become a dancer, but hadn’t yet transitioned, and was told she was too feminine to be cast.

She then got a job at Harlem United doing outreach with LGBT communities and started receiving hormones and transitioning from male to female.

“I became more connected to the trans community,” she said.

White also received her bachelors and masters degrees from Columbia University in 2006 and 2007. She worked for a short time as a phlebotomist and thought about being a biochemist but realized her passion lay in helping other transgender people. She joined Housing Works in 2008.

White is also working to change the narrative around relationships among transgender women whose sexual partners are often ignored, to the detriment of effective HIV outreach. She fought for a program at her Housing Works’ transgender evening program, where partners come in one night a week.

“We’re missing half of the equation,” White said. “There’s this image of transpeople as solitary entities, but a lot of the girls are having sex, and their partners are exposed to the same risks.”

White hopes to expand her work internationally. She brought a priest who works with the transgender community in India to Housing Works, and was also featured in a documentary about LGBT issues in Jamaica.

“A lot of the issues are similar globally, and we can learn a lot from what has been done in other communities,” she said.

Susan Sarandon donates MaxMara dress!

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:38:00

Susan Sarandon donated the beautiful MaxMara dress she is wearing in the above photo to our Spring Preview auction marking the grand opening of our eighth location in Tribeca. Come to the grand opening party on March 7, 2009, from 1pm to 4pm at 72 Warren St.—and bid on Susan’s dress!

Marvina Tatum, Housing Works Client

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:41:00

Money raised at Housing Works Thrift Shops through donations from Marc Jacobs and other brands helps pay for the medical care, job training and drug treatment programs that give Housing Works clients like Marvina Tatum the tools they need to turn their lives around. Marvina is seen here wearing a donated Marc Jacobs dress as part of the “Fashion Saved My Life” campaign to promote Fashion for Action 2008.

Formerly homeless and addicted to drugs, Marvina now lives at a Housing Works residence and works as a clothing sorter at Housing Works’ donations warehouse, where she processes donations to events like Fashion for Action. That means that Marvina is the first person to see the fashion that saved her life: ”I owe my life to Housing Works. Housing Works taught me how to live with HIV. And I do mean live!”,” she says, adding, “”And the dress is beautiful.””

David Cohen, Board Chair, Housing Works, Inc.

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:34:00

Maimonides Medical Center Senior Vice President David Cohen joined the Housing Works, Inc. Board, over which he now presides, in 1997. “I collaborated with Housing Works on a grant that provided assistance to people with tuberculosis. I was so impressed with the services that Housing Works provided that I was delighted when given the opportunity to join the Board.”

Cohen is a hands-on Chair. One of his recent endeavors was bringing Housing Works into the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange, a new health information organization that will allow participating clinicians to have immediate access to client health information. “I see technology save lives every day. It’s gratifying to see Housing Works in the midst of its own digital revolution,” he says, adding, “I’m so proud of all of Housing Works’ programs and services. Housing Works is one of the most ambitious AIDS organizations in the world.”

Alan Light, Board Cochair, Housing Works Bookstore Café

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:13:00

Housing Works Bookstore Café Board Cochair Alan Light is a legendary music journalist who cofounded Vibe magazine and writes regularly for the New York Times. He added an incredible new dimension to the Bookstore Café when he dreamed up its Live from Home series.

Light has prevailed on dozens of up-and-coming and already established musicians, including John Mellencamp, John Mayer, Nick Lowe, Patti Griffin, Bright Eyes, Apples in Stereo and Tracy Chapman, to give concerts in the uniquely intimate setting of the Bookstore Café as part of the Live from Home series. The John Mellencamp concert, which marked the fifth-anniversary of Live From Home, raised an astonishing $60,000, all of which went to Housing Works services for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Thanks to Light, Live from Home has become a staple of New York City’s downtown music scene. “The response from performers who have played at the Bookstore has been universally great. Many of them immediately offer to come back, and the bigger names all end up playing for longer than they had planned,” he says.

What’s more, Live from Home has dramatically widened the reach of the Bookstore Cafe. Says Light, “Some of the most exciting shows for me are the ones that bring in a new audience: when we had Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dion play, for example, or a classical prodigy like Hilary Hahn, with bluegrass virtuoso Chris Thile. I know the people attending those shows had never heard of Housing Works before and never set foot in the bookstore. That’s a really rewarding accomplishment.”

Jill Devoe, Volunteer

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:24:01

Jill Devoe was studying applied and medical anthropology when she learned about Housing Works unique approach to helping its clients, in particular, harm reduction. “I was blown away,” she says. “Housing Works’ method is so amazing. It makes sense to let people be themselves and be human and get basic care. That shouldn’t be special.”

When Devoe saw that Housing Works needed tutors for people in the Job Training Program, she jumped at the chance. Her experience defied her expectations. The clients were tons of fun—but at the same time, serious as could be about learning. “They were so eager and excited,” she says. “I realized that this was a big deal for them. They had been through a lot and now they were starting a second life.”

Miguel Mendez, Housing Works Senior Vice President of Operations

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:57:00

Two weeks after Miguel Mendez started working at Housing Works as a case management technician in 1993, his sister died of AIDS. He took five days of bereavement leave, and shortly after he came back, Housing Works President and CEO Charles King called him into his office. “I thought I was going to get fired!” recalls Mendez, now Housing Works’ Senior Vice President of Operations. “Instead, he asked me if I needed more time off. Because of this act of compassion, that’s when I knew I was going to stay at Housing Works.”

Even before his sister died, Mendez knew that he wanted to work somewhere that he could join the fight against AIDS. “In the late 80s and early 90s, most of my friends and family members were getting AIDS and dying of AIDS,” he says. Since then, Mendez’ dedication to fighting the epidemic through Housing Works has seen him through nearly a half-dozen promotions and several academic degrees, including a master’s in information systems engineering.

Mendez has even passed on his commitment to his two sons, Paul and Miguel III. Paul started in August 2008 as an Internet merchandise coordinator for Housing Works Thrift Shops Miguel has worked at Housing Works since 2000 and is a case manager for the Women’s Transitional Housing Program. “I work harder because I like to keep my father’s name where it’s at,” Miguel says.

Like so many others who work here, Mendez says Housing Work is family. “I got a bunch of cousins and uncles and brothers and sisters, and we all work together to help people in need,” he says.

Vivian Lopez Ponce, Housing Works client

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:38:00

“Housing Works support groups help me keep myself in check,” says Vivian Lopez Ponce. “They remind me I’m not the only one who went through hell.”

Ponce is enrolled in the Transgender Services program at our 13th Street facility. The “hell” she is referring to is the life on the streets that many transgender people—discriminated against in employment and housing—are forced to turn to in order to survive. Many engage in sex work and HIV rates are high. Ponce was diagnosed with HIV in 1996. “When I walk through Housing Works’ doors, I feel like I’m alive again,” she says.

Ponce, who serves on 13th Street’s Community Advisory Board, says the Housing Works support groups she attends—which deal with everything from anger management to spirituality to life as a Latina—are a lifeline, not just for her but for her partner, also a Housing Works client. “Housing Works really helped my love, health-wise, stop drinking and stop using drugs,” she says.

Hosuing Works Legal Services helped Ponce change her name, a frequent stumbling block in employment and other official matters for people who are transgender. “I feel great about that,” Ponce says. “I should have had it done a long time ago.”

Norma Reinhardt Mascarotti, Thrift Shops Volunteer

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:05:02

It started with a red fur coat.

Norma Reinhardt Mascarotti used to see the Housing Works Gramercy Thrift Shop from the M23 bus, but it wasn’t until she spied a red fur coat in the window that she decided to walk through our doors and into a new chapter of her life.

For the last seven years, the ebullient Mascarotti has volunteered two days a week at the Gramercy shop where she curates the jewelry case and attends to a coterie of jewelry customers. A retired fashion industry veteran, Mascarotti says Housing Works was a perfect fit. “I had worked all my life and still wanted to be involved in something. With Housing Works, I thought, ‘Retail is my background. Maybe I could do something!’ I’m proud of the jewelry cases. I helped build a business that might never have existed.’” Mascarotti eventually joined the Thrift Shops board of directors as a volunteer representative.

Mascarotti volunteers elsewhere, but Housing Works is her great love. She relishes the youthful staff—“I consider myself with-it!,” she says—and recognizes that Housing Works’ true jewels are its clients. “I’ve worked with clients who have come from such terrible circumstances and here they are, working with you on a job. They’re incredible,” she says.

Ayana Mortley, Thrift Shops Volunteer

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:00:00

Brooklyn high school student Ayana Mortley decided to volunteer at the Housing Works Thrift Shop in Brooklyn Heights after her brother told her how much he was enjoying volunteering at our 23rd Street Thrift Shop in Manhattan.

The trip from home to Brooklyn Heights takes her 45 minutes, but, says, Mortley, “I love volunteering at the store. We’re like a family.” Besides, Housing Works’ mission makes it all worthwhile. “We have to take care of people who have HIV but also prevent infections. Young people think, ‘It will never happen to me.’ They have to know that’s not the case.”

Derrick Chandler, Housing Works Peer Advocate and Client

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:38:00

In the late-‘80s, Derrick Chandler was one of two places: Tompkins Square Park, where he shot drugs and slept, or Riker’s Island jail, where he was sent if he got arrested for stealing to pay for his drug habit.

Chandler nearly died of AIDS-related illnesses before he started to turn his life around. The road was often bumpy, but he credits Housing Works prevention services with giving him the tools he needed to finally get clean. “I’m still alive and here from what I learned at Housing Works,” he says, adding, “Housing Works gave me a chance to become whole again.”

Housing Works also helped him discover his gift: helping others. Chandler was so skilled at galvanizing other clients to participate in activism that our advocacy department created a special position for him, which he filled for six years. Chandler is now a peer advocate at our Harm Reduction Place, where he gives acupuncture to clients struggling with cravings for drugs. Says Chandler, “The steady stream of repeat customers proves its working.”

Alison Richards, Women’s Health Center client

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:55:00

In 2005, when Alison Richards found out she had HIV, she didn’t take it well. “I was hysterical,” Richards says. “And then I was in denial. I didn’t want to hear that I had HIV.”

The women-friendly environment, health care and services of the Women’s Health Center are helping Richards face the challenges of living with the virus while raising three children. She’s especially passionate about support groups like the Road to Well Being or Women in Focus. “We talk about getting our lives back, about what we’ve been through. Women go through a lot of the same things. We understand each other,” Richards says, adding with a chuckle, “I spend more time here than I do at home!”

And Richards is, indeed, getting her life back. She says she’s never been on better terms with her three children, one of whom reacted poorly when he found out about her HIV status. She’s a peer at the Women’s Health Center as well as a member of the Community Advisory Board. And she’s got her eye on the future. “I want to be an HIV/AIDS counselor,” she says. “One day, I’m going to get there.”

Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:51:01

Housing Works President and CEO Charles King is one of the preeminent leaders in the fight against AIDS in the U.S. One of a handful of people living with HIV at the head of a major AIDS organization, King cofounded Housing Works in 1990 with his life partner Keith Cylar. When Cylar passed away in 2004, King took the reins. “One of my biggest challenge has been to keep Housing Works focused on its advocacy mission, even while we continue to grow and offer more services to more people living with HIV/AIDS,” he says.

Born and raised in a small town in Texas, King attended Yale University’s law school and divinity school and was ordained as a Baptist minister by an African-American church in New Haven, Connecticut. He conducts a weekly Bible study course at Housing Works’ Keith D. Cylar House, where he lives in a small, book-lined studio. King also leads Housing Works’ advocacy department and has been arrested dozens of times; his black cowboy hat and long ponytail are as much a part of our protests as banners and chants. “No matter what we’ve accomplished, to me Housing Works remains a healing community, a place where people who have been disenfranchised have an opportunity to give and receive healing and wholeness,” he says.

What does King see in Housing Works’ future? Spreading the word that housing works, of course. Says King, “I want to see us involved on a local, national, and international levels in establishing housing as a basic right and essential element of prevention and treatment of HIVAIDS.”

Denise Gordon, Board Member, Housing Works, Inc.

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:42:00

It’s no surprise that the Housing Works, Inc. Board of Directors is such a good fit for Deloitte and Touche Human Resources manager Denise Gordon. “My job is to provide people with access to work opportunities and information. The advocacy that Housing Works does provides people with access to medication and to opportunities and housing. The connection between what I do and what Housing Works does was easy,” she says.

Gordon joined the board in September 2007. As a Jamaican woman—Gordon moved with her family to Long Island when she was 11—she identifies with Housing Works’ mission to fight AIDS and its ability to reach women of color. “AIDS is a huge issue in the the black women’s community,” she says. “You always ask yourself how you can help people. This was something close to home where I felt I could give back.”

Gordon, a Brooklyn resident who frequents the Housing Works Thrift Shops store on Montague St., says getting to interact with Housing Works clients is a highlight of her board work. “It’s amazing how integral clients are, from having seats on the board to inclusion in different events. That’s exciting,” she says. She has leant her expertise to both the Housing Works Human Resources Department and the Development Department and can’t wait to do more: “We’re a hands-on board. Wherever there is an opening to do something, you just do.”

Johnny Guaylupo, Housing Works Intake Coordinator

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:40:01

Johnny Guaylupo has come a long way. At age 17 he was diagnosed with HIV, an event that forced him and his family to confront not only living with the disease but the fact that Guaylupo was gay.

Finding his way to the Campaign to End AIDS, a national coalition of AIDS activists underwritten by Housing Works, helped Guaylupo learn to be out, loud and proud about both his HIV status and his sexual orientation. “It took a lot for me to make a speech in public,” he says, recalling one of his first advocacy events. “I was the only HIV-positive speaker, surrounded by all these middle class girls, so I just said: ‘Hi. My name’s Johnny, I’m from the Bronx and I’m HIV positive.’”

Now 27, Guaylupo works as an intake coordinator at Housing Works’ East New York Adult Day Health Center where he helps Housing Works clients access housing, medical care, drug treatment and other services. “People come in who are homeless or just out of jail or have substance abuse problems, and I’m the first person they see,” says Guaylupo. “It’s rewarding when I see them get an apartment or get clean or get healthy.”

Robin Bluford, Housing Works Administrative Assistant

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:41:00

Robin Bluford came to Housing Works in 2004 to participate in our Job Training Program , from which she graduated in 2005. Robin was diagnosed with HIV in 2001, and JTP changed her outlook. “Instead of sitting back and looking at what seemed like the inevitable, JTP challenged me to rise to the occasion. It showed me I could stand on my own two feet,” she says.

After Robin graduated from JTP, she was hired by Housing Works’ social enterprise property management company, Gotham Assets, and eventually moved to her current post as Housing Works President and CEO Charles King’s administrative assistant. “Charles is passionate about our mission, but he’s also a good one to sit with and talk to when I’m going through something difficult,” Robin says.

When she’s not working, Robin spends time with her daughter, Janelle, reads (one recent favorite: Marvelyn Brown’s The Naked Truth about living with HIV), roots for the New York Jets and sings in the All Saint’s Gospel Choir. But she says she is focused on one goal: “I want people to understand that HIV is a wake-up call to pay attention to the smaller things in life and appreciate them.”