The AIDS National Interfaith Network (ANIN) is the only organization whose mission is to mobilize the vast volunteer resources of America's faith community in the battle against HIV/AIDS. ANIN has taken the lead in forging partnerships between local AIDS ministries, other local AIDS service organizations (ASOs), national religious denominations, national AIDS organizations and public health agencies. ANIN is also the main source of technical assistance and information for the over 2,000 AIDS ministries across the U.S., and ANIN's role as the voice of the faith community's caring response to HIV/AIDS is growing.

With no cure in sight, increasing and improving volunteer efforts to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS remains critically important. Roughly half of the local, volunteer-driven AIDS service organizations across the U.S. are AIDS ministries staffed by committed clergy, volunteers and professionals providing a wide range of life saving and life extending prevention and care services.

ANIN brought together, in 1993, for the first time ever, 12 national HIV/AIDS networks affiliated with national congregations/denominations to form the Council of NATIONAL RELIGIOUS AIDS NETWORKS (CNRAN). As a result, ANIN has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to coordinate seven HIV/AIDS prevention and care projects (being implemented by CNRAN members across the country) and to provide a variety of program training, technical assistance, information and referral services to AIDS ministries across America.

ANIN sought in 1996 to accomplish its mission through three goals:

To build capacity within national religious organizations, their respective national religious AIDS networks and individual AIDS ministries to participate in HIV prevention efforts.

• The Council of NATIONAL RELIGIOUS AIDS NETWORKS met in Washington, D.C in March 1996 and in New York City in August 1996.

  The current membership of the council includes:

  The AIDS Ministry Network-ChristianChurch,(DOC)
  The Lutheran AIDS Network
  The National Catholic AIDS Network
  The National Episcopal AIDS Coalition
  The Presbyterian AIDS Network
  The Balm in Gilead (African American Church AIDS programs)
  The Union of American Hebrew Congregations/Central Committee of American Rabbis AIDS Committee
  The Unitarian Universalist Association, AIDS Resources Network
  The United Church AIDS/HIV Network
  The United Methodist HIV/AIDS Ministries Network
  The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, AIDS Ministry

  During 1996 four new national networks have joined the Council:

  The Buddhist AIDS Network
  the Greek Orthodox AIDS Network
  the Dignity USA-National AIDS Project
  the HIV/AIDS Ministry-Seventh Day Adventists.

  The combined membership of all the council members numbers over 10,000 persons from across the United States. Through their respective denominations, the Council networks have access to over 175,000 congregations across the nation.

  ANIN assists individual members of the network to conduct national AIDS prevention programs through subcontracting with them funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

  National Catholic AIDS Network: Many Threads, One Weave: A Parish Training Program to Develop HIV/AIDS Awareness and Education

  Presbyterian AIDS Network: HIV/AIDS Prevention/Awareness Video for mainline African-American churches project

  UFMCC AIDS Ministry: The PEP (Peer Education Program)

  United Methodist HIV/AIDS Ministries Network: The Computerized AIDS Network (CAM) project

  UAHC/CCAR AIDS Committee: Jewish Response to AIDS Video Project

  United Church AIDS/HIV Network: HIV Prevention Initiative

  Lutheran AIDS Network: Parish based HIV/AIDS Curriculum

  Red Ribbon Project:

  In light of the overall goal of building capacity within national religious organizations towards prevention programs, ANIN established the Red Ribbon Project in July of 1995 and hired Mrs. Sarah Naylor as its coordinator as a contracted consultant. During the reporting period Mrs. Naylor has initiated contacts and met with denominational personnel to assess their programmatic status with regard to their individual denominations response to the epidemic. There are twenty-three national religious bodies with more than one million members each; the goal of the Red Ribbon project is to dialogue on these issues.

  
  
  To build capacity within national religious organizations and their respective national religious AIDS networks to enhance HIV prevention efforts through better collaborations with other national AIDS organizations.

  • ANIN provided opportunities for Technical Assistance
    by conducting workshops at:

    the Lutheran AIDS Network AIDS Ministry Gathering, NYC

    the UCC Health and Welfare Ministries Conference, Baltimore,MD

    the Urban Ministry Conference, in Chicago with a workshop and display booth

    the AIDS and Clergy Conference, Keynote Sioux Falls, SD

    the National Association of Social Workers in AIDS conference, Atlanta, (Seminar on AIDS & Spirituality)

    the Clergy & AIDS Retreat, Centennial,Wyoming

    the AIDS Ministry Workshop, Oregon State Department of Health, Sunriver,OR.

  • In JULY, ANIN participated at the XIth International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, Canada by producing an information exhibit and co-sponsoring an Interfaith Service of Remembrance, Hope and Healing attended by over 600 conference participants.

  • 800 Hotline: information, referral and direct technical assistance was provided to AIDS ministries

    Over 2,000 calls were recorded from the 800 service from 45 states at an average of 166 calls per month or 8.3 calls per day. These calls for information and assistance do not include the calls ANIN receives for general business purposes.. There is a wide range of requests and assistance provided:

    • a city health department calls seeking assistance on how to set up a clergy day AIDS education program in their community
    • "I'm a hospice nurse at a children's hospice and we are looking for sympathetic clergy in our area to do some counseling with families of HIV patients".
    • An religious organization called to tell us about starting an AIDS housing program and asking about where to find technical assistance and federal funds.
    • The local Red Cross chapter called from Wisconsin and is planning a conference for AIDS caregivers and wants to include keynote speakers on spiritual issues.
    • POZ magazine is planning an AIDS Expo and is looking for persons to lead workshops on spiritual issues.
    • The UConn School of Social Work called and is designing a class on HIV and the Community and asked for religious resources and the religious communities response to the epidemic.
    • A coordinator of a local Jewish AIDS Network would like to organize a national network. They asked for information, mailing lists and support to meet at National Skills Building Conference.

  • In October, after a year of planning and collaboration, The AIDS National Interfaith Network joined in a formal affiliation with the National AIDS Fund. ANIN moved its offices to share space with the Fund at their location and started the process of shared programming.

  • The National Skills Building Conference took place at the Washington Hilton and Towers (10/10-10/13/96) and was attended by over 2,100 front line AIDS workers from all 50 States and seven foreign countries. ANIN co-sponsored the event for the sixth year with its partners, The National Association of People with AIDS and the National Minority AIDS Council. 184 educational sessions were conducted by 330 presenters to improve the management of community based AIDS organizations. ANIN specifically coordinated one all day AIDS ministry institute, twelve AIDS ministry workshops, one Spirituality and AIDS plenary and an Interfaith Service of Prayer and Healing at the Washington National Cathedral attended by over 3,500 persons.

  • In December ANIN promoted its "16 Bells" program through coordination with the American Association for World Health in its World AIDS Day Resource Book distributed free of charge to 45,000 Americans. All houses of worship were encouraged to ring bells 16 times at 2:00 pm local time to commemorate the 16 years of the epidemic. ANIN also published and distributed 10,000 copies of a revised edition of the " The Council Call" with the financial help of the United Methodist Church. The call provides an opportunity for persons of faith to support this interfaith statement of compassion and justice in the face of AIDS by joining a long list of supporters, now numbering in the tens of thousands.

  
  
  To provide a voice of advocacy on federal AIDS legislative issues representing ANIN's constituency of AIDS ministries and national religious organizations.

  • Worked with National Organizations Responding to AIDS (NORA)

    ANIN focused on getting national denominational offices, religious agencies and AIDS ministries more involved with NORA, the AIDS policy coalition of over 150 national, Washington-based health, labor, civil rights and AIDS organizations.

  • Public Policy Advocacy

    ANIN joined with others to support sign-on letters to:
    Congress on HIV & Military, Medicaid Cap, Governor's medicaid proposal, Faith Groups on Medicaid reform, Support of AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), Governor's Medicaid Program concerns, Support Jeffords Amendment on lifetime insurance cap, support Health Insurance Reform Act, FY 97 AIDS Appropriations Document, Amend Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, to Senate on S.1477 FDA Performance and Accountability Act, to President Clinton on HIV/AID & welfare reform, to the Congress to oppose the HIV Prevention Act, Action alert to ANIN members on AIDS Prevention funding, to the White House on AIDS staff vacancies at Agency for International Development (AID).

  • In May, ANIN provided hospitality, conducted a worship service, and AIDS display in the lobby of Methodist building in hosting AIDS Watch 96. Over 700 AIDS advocates attended. With a grant from the George Gund Foundation, ANIN also supported 20 AIDS ministry advocates, from as many states, with travel scholarships to participate in the lobby days event. During that same weekend, ANIN was present at the President's signing of the re-authorization of the Ryan White CARE Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

  
  

  ANIN Governance and Support

  The ANIN Board of Directors and its Demographics

  The Board of Directors of the AIDS National Interfaith Network is responsible for the overall professional management of its programs and activities. The board, is representative of various AIDS ministries as well as regions of the country and its racial, ethnic diversity. Meetings of the Board, which maintain a 95% attendance record, are held twice a year in various cities across America. The executive committee meets monthly via conference call between meetings of the full board.

  Currently composed of thirteen individuals, the Board representing the following profile:

  Sex: nine are female and four members are male.
  Race: five are people of color, eight members are not.
  Religious affiliations: African Methodist Episcopal (1) American Baptist (1), Buddhist (1), Episcopal (1), Jewish (1), Lutheran (1), Presbyterian (1), Roman Catholic (3), Unitarian Universalist (1), United Methodist (2)
  Geographical distribution: East: Boston (1), Tampa (2), New York City (2), Springfield, NJ (1) Alexandria,Va (1) Washington,DC (1) Central: Topeka (1), Oklahoma City (1), West: Los Angeles (1), Phoenix (1), San Francisco (1).

  Other characteristics: The AIDS National Interfaith Network's by-laws requires that there be representation on the board of directors of people living with AIDS. In the past year the Rev. Herbert Evans, representing the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches past away. Rabbi Marc Blumenthal, the Vice Chair of the board is also a person living with AIDS.

  ANIN is also committed to the affirmation of gay and lesbian people. Three persons on the current board of directors are openly gay.

  
  

  Board Leadership

  Ms. Holly McAlpen, Chairperson
  Rabbi Marc Blumenthal , Vice Chairperson
  Sr. Anne Dougherty, Secretary
  Rev. Sharon Keeling, Treasurer
  

  The board has hired the executive director under an annual contractual arrangement and conducts an annual performance appraisal of his effectiveness. The executive director for the organization has authority from the Board of Directors to hire and manage the staff of the agency within the specifications of the agencies personnel policies.

  
  

  Staff Profile

  Rev. Kenneth T. South has been with ANIN since June of 1989 and is currently its Executive Director. Prior to this position Rev. South was the Director of the AIDS Education and Research Division of the Koba Institute of Washington, D.C. Two of the four AIDS programs he supervised provided outreach, prevention/education services to Blacks and Latinos in the Washington, DC area. In addition he was the principal investigator for a three city, AIDS intervention study of IV drug users, in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Laredo, Texas, and San Diego, California funded by a contract from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse of the Public Health Service.

  In the fall of 1987 Rev. South moved to Washington to provide staffing services to Dr. Frank Lilly, a Commissioner on the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic.

  From 1984 to 1987 he was the Executive Director of AID Atlanta. He was active in Georgia AIDS policy development by his participation on the State of Georgia AIDS Task Force, the Dekalb County AIDS Task Force and in forming the Georgia AIDS Action Committee.

  Other national involvements with the AIDS epidemic include his participation on the AIDS Task Force of the American College Health Association, his board membership of the American Social Health Association, managers of the National AIDS Hotline, a member of the AIDS Advisory Committee of the National Hospice Organization, a former Secretary of the Board of Directors of the National AIDS Network and former President of the Board of Directors of AIDS Medicine and Miracles.

  
  

  Financial Support for 1996

  All the activities of ANIN's ministry depend on the support of its constituency and various funding sources including: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the individuals who give to the Combined Federal Campaign, the Colin Higgins Trust, Hoffman-LaRoche Laboratories, The George Gund Foundation, The United Church of Christ, The Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., The United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, our member AIDS ministries and denominations, and the many individuals whose personal gifts continue to be a blessing. ANIN's portion of The National Skills Building Conference support acknowledges The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Philip Morris Companies, and the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Public Health Service.