National AIDS Education & Services for Minorities-NAESM

The mission of NAESM is to provide national and local leadership to address the myriad of health and wellness issues confronted by black gay men through advocacy, services, and education.

Since 1990, NAESM strives and successfully provides quality services to African Americans who are at high-risk for HIV infection or transmission and who are often underserved or uninsured. What started as a local community outreach effort to help bring awareness of HIV/AIDS to African Americans in metro-Atlanta has now grown into a multiservice service organization that reaches more than 2,800 people annually, which does not include the 10,000+ individuals reached by street and community outreach.

We provided leadership and sponsorship of the first national forum of organizations focusing on the health of gay men of color. As a fearless pioneer we encouraged dialogue regarding HIV among AA gay men and the responsibility of gay men of color to generate strategies to reduce both the rates of infection and to eliminate the stigma associated with the disease. Now in its eight year, the National African American MSM Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS and other Health Disparities provides skills building workshops to prepare and encourage African American gay men to take leadership roles in prevention and care research, program planning, and advocacy.

Agency Programs: The major programs at NAESM are (1) health education, prevention, and awareness; (2) capacity building assistance for community planning groups and agencies that provide services to AA MSM; (3) a youth drop in center; (4) support services; and (5) renewed housing program. Each of these programs have been recognized for great achievements including providing HIV testing to nearly 2,500 in the last two years, which is more than twice the projected number of clients. In 2007, NAESM was praised and is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its initiative in documenting strategies that health departments can use to improve services within their jurisdictions.

And after its first year of operation in April 2008, DaCRIBB youth center (which stands for Creating Responsible Intelligent Black Brothers), became a staple program for young African American gay and bisexual men in Atlanta and reached more than 450 persons!