California: Two AIDS Prevention Groups to Merge

Aiming to streamline HIV prevention and care, two veteran San Francisco AIDS service organizations announced on Oct. 18 their plan to merge next month. Founded in 1984, Stop AIDS Project (SAP) will become a program within the larger San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF). Merger talks had been ongoing since March, said SFAF CEO Neil Giuliano, though the idea had been discussed for years.

"The economies of scale for HIV prevention in San Francisco really provided a compelling case for the two prevention programs to come together," said Giuliano. "The portfolios together are going to be stronger and have a greater local service impact."

SAP has $1 million in government grants and will retain its name and operate from its Castro location at 15th and Market streets. The project's 13 employees will join the 110 staff members at SFAF, which had a $23 million budget last year on Nov. 1.

SAP Executive Director Kyriel Noon will become SFAF's director of prevention services, overseeing SAP's existing programs as well as SFAF's prevention work.

"The foundation's history of acquiring other programs has been such that those programs have grown as opposed to shrinking," Noon said.

The Castro-based community clinic Magnet has almost tripled the number of free HIV tests it provides since its 2007 acquisition by SFAF, according to the foundation. That same year, SFAF gained the mental-health care provider Stonewall, which has since established a second location in the Castro and increased services and staffing.

SAP will transfer its annual Dining Out for Life fundraiser to SFAF; that event is scheduled for April 26, 2012.

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