SEMHAC Gala Honors Community Partners, Council Members

The Southeastern Michigan HIV and Aids Council (SEMHAC) held a gala to honor its outstanding community partners, staff and new members on Feb. 23.
SEMHAC exists to create a coordinated regional response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southeastern Michigan with the help of community leaders and individuals infected and affected by HIV. The organization works to accomplish such goals through its six standing committees.
The first award of the night honored SEMHAC’s community partners. Winners included the Wayne State University Horizons Project, the Michigan State University Detroit Division, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the Recipients Office of the Detroit Health Department, HAPI (Housing Assistance Payment Initiative), and HELP (Health Emergency Lifeline Programs).
SEMHAC also honored the Recipients Office with two separate awards: “Outstanding Achievement for Outside Program/Project” and “Best Collaborative Effort with Partner Organizations.”
“The recipients office has been the best coming into a bad period and making things excellent,” Ron Doe, a member of SEMHAC’s finance committee, told the audience.
Evelynn Postell-Frank and Quintin Stroud, council co-chair and chair at SEMHAC, closed out the night with a few comments.
“Together we are so powerful,” Postell-Frank said. “They may have given out awards to individuals, but please understand that it takes the collective body to get the work done, so there’s not one person in this room more important than the next.”
“HIV is preventable now and HIV is treatable,” Stroud said. “A person can live many, many, many years a healthy life with HIV, and that’s because of the things we do every day in the community.”

For those interested in learning more about SEMHAC, including how to get involved, please visit semhacmich.squarespace.com.