Alliance for Positive Change

Treatment education and adherence support: every year brings new hiv treatment options, as well as new challenges to staying on track with complicated medical regimens. Alliance provides treatment education and adherence support in the form of workshops and one-on-one counseling to help people living with hiv and other chronic health conditions stick with their treatment plans, manage side effects, communicate with their medical provides, and stay abreast of emerging treatment options. Through pharmacy access centers at Alliance's community Service sites in Washington heights, midtown, and the bronx, we offer treatment education and planning, peer support, food and nutrition services, and incentives as part of our progressive patient-centered treatment adherence plan. We also run social media campaigns that resource people to take charge of their health and overcome barriers to accessing needed services.

Harm reduction and recovery services: Alliance magnifies our impact through harm reduction practices that support and honor each individual's chosen pathway to Positive Change. We meet people wherever they are along the recovery continuum through safe syringe exchange, recovery readiness, relapse prevention, and recovery support. Our approach promotes the dignity, health, and safety of people who use drugs, people newly entering recovery, and people with years of recovery behind them. Nyc's first syringe exchange program, the Lower east side harm reduction Center, merged with and became a program of Alliance for Positive Change in 2017, contributing to Alliance's comprehensive "one stop" harm reduction model of care, spanning from syringe exchange for active users to recovery support programs through oasas 822 licensure.to reduce the risk of hiv, hepatitis, overdose, and other harmful health outcomes, Alliance offers opioid overdose prevention tools and training, a syringe Service program, medication assisted treatment (mat), and harm reduction education and resources that enable people who use drugs to protect themselves and each other. Our services include counseling, coaching, and peer-led support; access to access healthcare; connection with a caring community; and opportunities for active users to explore recovery at their own pace.

Care management: Alliance's innovative care management services provide a continuum of medical care, mental health counseling, peer-to-peer education, harm reduction, and related supports. Alliance is proud of our long-standing and effective medical-community partnerships through which Alliance co-locates its care management teams to 13 clinic sites in hospitals and health centers across Manhattan, including: ryan health (6 clinics), mount sinai (3 clinics), ny presbyterian (3 clinics), and metropolitan hospital (1 clinic). These partnerships with new york city's leading health care institutions ensure that Alliance's participants get fast, barrier-free access to coordinated medical care and other vital services. By co-locating our care coordinators onsite within medical clinics and hospitals, Alliance makes it easy for low-income individuals with chronic conditions to stay connected to care and treatment. We provide accompaniment to appointments, visit people at home if they are too ill to travel, and connect participant with our food and nutrition services program, housing, pharmacy, counseling, and other services that promote health and well-being.

Peer training and workforce re-entry services: throughout its history, Alliance has pioneered peer training, peer-delivered health-access services, and workforce development as strategies for hiv prevention, recovery support, and economic mobility for low-income new yorkers. Alliance's peer program grew incrementally and organically over the years - including being increasingly led by the peers themselves. Today, Alliance has created its own peer workforce, employing over 120 peers in part-time paid internships each year, along with intensive training, tailored support, mentorship, and supervision. Alliance is proud of the fact that over 30% of full-time staff are former peers who left public entitlements and rejoined the workforce. Our peers serve as community role models; reinvigorate their own health, recovery, and economic opportunities; and contribute to a health-delivery workforce of people who represent and have lived experiences aligned with the communities served.through workforce training, peer certification (through the nys department of health and the nys office of addiction services and supports - oasas), vocational education, and career-readiness support services, Alliance's peer education, training, and paid internship programs empower low-income new yorkers to become community leaders and inspire others to access resources that promote recovery, health care engagement, and achievement of their Positive Change goals. Community outreach & linkage to care services: Alliance is at the forefront of efforts to end the Aids epidemic in nys through our comprehensive linkage to care and community outreach programs, which improve access to care while reducing health care costs. Alliance's pioneering linkage to care program partners with managed care organizations, hospitals, and community health centers using a combination of data technology and culturally competent peer-delivered outreach and engagement services to locate and engage underserved people living with hiv and other chronic health conditions who have fallen out of care. Alliance goes the extra mile to (re)build the bridge between underserved new yorkers and life-saving medical and support services. Alliance augments our linkage to care program with tangible supports such as onsite meals, healthy food pantry bags and food vouchers, clothing (warm coats, business attire, etc. ), emergency assistance to pay bills, and transportation assistance and childcare to help people access our services. Through our community outreach initiatives, we bring health promotion and harm reduction education; integrated hiv, hepatitis and covid testing; navigation to medical care' pre-exposure prophylaxis ("prep") for high risk persons to keep them hiv negative; and other health-access services directly to new york city's most-impacted, least-served communities, including people of color, members of the lgbtq+ community, people who use drugs, and justice-system-involved people returning home to their communities.supportive housing: Alliance provides individualized housing placement assistance, as well as long-term transitional and permanent housing through our 90-unit congregant supportive housing program in the bronx. We offer residents an array of health promotion and treatment adherence services that promote harm reduction, long-term recovery, wellness, and self-sufficiency for people living with multiple chronic conditions.