BY AJ TRAGER
SOUTHEAST DETROIT – AIDS Partnership Michigan and HIV/AIDS Resource Center officially launched the brand of their merged organization on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, and will now be known as Unified – HIV Health and Beyond.
The two organizations merged earlier this year in January and have spent the last 11 months developing a new brand name and reorganizing how the services that they have provided and will continue to provide could better service the counties that they represent.
Services have not changed. However, the merger does allow for the offices to share services throughout all of the Metro Detroit region. The Detroit office, for example, can now share its system for behavior and mental health programs with the Jackson office to better spread out and help those living with or are at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, and to integrate and cross-train between offices.
"We want to collaborate, we don't want to be in competition anymore," CEO William VanHemert said. "And that's the whole point: we want to work together and share resources, hopefully get the fundings then, but not compete and not have to go after the same dollars. Really provide a network of collaborative services, comprehended for the client and the consumers not just in the Metropolitan Detroit area but the Southeast Michigan area."
Unified serves 10 counties in Michigan where 63 percent of those affected by HIV reside. The new organization increases capacity in key ares, including programming, access to funding, community-based research and delivery of HIV-related healthcare services. A multitude of services will still be available in the three locations of Detroit, Ypsilanti and Jackson.
Unified – HIV Health and Beyond will continue to fight HIV at the grassroots level in both urban and rural communities where it is most prevalent, especially for young people, people of color, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users.
The organization is still rooted in HIV services but is now more focused on treating the person as a whole. Two slogans, "Life Continues, Live Healthy" and "Positive Change," will be used in upcoming months to encourage dialogue on social media and further HIV/AIDS awareness. Unified is committed to "Getting To Zero."
APM and HARC received funding from the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan to hire Uproar Communications out of Ann Arbor to focus on a new brand for the merged organization. The new logo features a heart for the first "I" in Unified. The red symbol still has roots in the red ribbon, VanHemert says, but it represents not just all of Unified consumers but also the community of those that are affected by HIV/AIDS.
The vision for Unified's future is to become a nationally recognized multi-service center creating positive change through regional impact, innovation and sustainability to promote HIV health and beyond.
Unified – HIV Health and Beyond will still provide the following services:
– Community mobilization campaigns
– Healthy relationships/prevention for HIV+ individuals
– HIV counseling and testing
– Hepatitis C testing
– Medical case management
– Medication adherence counseling
– Behavioral health services
– Tobacco reduction services
– Health insurance enrollment assistance
– Michigan HIV/STD hotline/website
– Syringe access and overdose prevention
– Peer-designed prevention programs
– Prisoner re-entry program
– Housing assistance and homelessness prevention
– Support service including: food and cleaning, supplies pantry, emergency financial assistance, transportation for medical appointments and support groups.
Visit the Unified – HIV Health and Beyond website at http://miunified.org/home.aspx.
