mochacenter

The MOCHA Center began in 1996 as a peer-driven initiative by a group of Black gay men to address the effects of HIV and AIDS on their community. The informal support network was called the Men of Color Health Awareness (MOCHA) Project although it was soon apparent that there were other needs unaddressed at the time. MOCHA attracted other groups as well, including lesbians of color and youth as the agency expanded its services to meet the needs of those groups through comparable programming, Something for the Sistas and MOCHA Chat, respectively.

The agency formally changed its name and mission in 2008 to reflect the constituencies served and is now known as the MOCHA Center whose mission is to improve health and wellness in communities of color through intervention and service with an emphasis on LGBTQ programming.

MOCHA has been on the cutting edge of developing programs that integrate prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) specifically targeted to LGBT communities of color. The first of these was the Many Men, Many Voices (3MV) group-level intervention, listed in the compendium of effective behavioral interventions published by the Centers for Disease Control. MOCHA adapted 3MV to address the rise in HIV infections among youth 13-24 and is now diffusing the adapted intervention Young Men, Young Voices.

MOCHA has also partnered with the House/Ball community and is currently developing a new intervention, Project VOGUE, geared toward increasing knowledge around HIV and resources available to combat it. Similarly, MOCHA is pilot testing the Theatre AIDS Prevention (TAP) program, which combines educational theatre, behavioral science and public health to provide an experiential alternative to didactic HIV/STI prevention.

MOCHA has also taken on a leadership role through the New York State Taskforce on Black Gay Health. The Taskforce is housed at MOCHA and recently convened a statewide Summit addressing current and emerging health issues as well as offering capacity building workshops. The findings from the Summit will be published shortly.

MOCHA continues to evolve to meet the needs of LGBT people of color with innovative, strengths-based programs and services.