Support from funders such as the Kent Richard Hofmann Foundation enables LifeCare Alliance to provide vital nutritional assistance to clients in our Project OpenHand-Columbus program.
The Kent Richard Hofmann Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Kent Richard Hofmann was an architect, philanthropist and early AIDS activist in Atlanta. Since his passing in 1988, the Foundation has kept his wishes to dedicate support to organizations providing advocacy and direct care to people living with HIV/AIDS.
LifeCare Alliance’s Project OpenHand-Columbus provides nutrition services to individuals in Central Ohio living with active HIV/AIDS. The program focuses on preventing nutrient deficiencies, weight loss, wasting and malnourishment, while maximizing the effectiveness of drug therapies and medical treatment. By providing nutritious meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, LifeCare Alliance can help to protect their immune systems, keep them in their homes and prevent ill health.
With supporters like the Kent Richard Hofmann Foundation, LifeCare Alliance is able to serve our neighbors with responsive, compassionate, and quality care. Thank you for helping us Nourish the Human Spirit!
-By Stephanie Rowe Bencic, LifeCare Alliance
Today is National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAD), a yearly observance launched by The AIDS Institute that focuses on the challenges the aging population faces in regards to HIV/AIDS and to highlight prevention, testing, care, and treatment.
Older adults in the U.S. are more likely to have late stage HIV infection at the time of diagnosis, which means they start treatment late and possibly suffer more immune-system damage. According to the CDC, an estimated 47% of individuals in the U.S. diagnosed with HIV were aged 50 and older in 2015. Project OpenHand-Columbus (POHC) serves a critical need by providing nutritious food for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. The program began in San Francisco, was founded in Columbus in 1994, and merged with LifeCare Alliance in 2004.
LifeCare Alliance would like to bring our recent supporters of POHC to light on this day. This past year, we received assistance for POHC clients from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Janssen Therapeutics, and emergency funding from the MAC Viva Glam Fund and The Legacy Fund of the Columbus Foundation. We would not be able to serve those living with HIV/AIDS without the help of the above mentioned organizations and businesses. Thank you for nourishing the human spirit!
-By Stephanie Rowe Bencic, LifeCare Alliance
LifeCare Alliance’s Project OpenHand-Columbus program provides nutritionally appropriate meals to central Ohio individuals living with HIV and/or AIDS as well as medical nutritional therapy to those with a dual-diagnosis of HIV and diabetes. With these services, clients can free up expenses to address the costs of maintaining their disease and live life more abundantly.
With Project OpenHand-Columbus’s focus on helping the low-income as well as under or uninsured HIV/AIDS population, we have found clients face multiple barriers to accessing food and nutrition, including, but not limited to, financial, cognitive, physical/mobility and support system. In 2019, 90% of program clients were living on an annual income of less than $20,000.
With limited income, clients are typically unable to obtain food meeting their dietary, medical, or cultural needs. When clients have a dual diagnosis of HIV/AIDS and diabetes, they have further complications addressing their health and ability to pay for medications, treatment, housing, and groceries. Even though significant medical advances have turned HIV/AIDS diagnoses from being death sentences to being treated more like a chronic illness, some clients are still socially isolated with a fractured family system, leaving them alone in combating their disease.
We would not be able to serve those with HIV/AIDS without the help of supporters like Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS helps men, women, and children across the country receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance. Since 1988, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses through donations collected in those red buckets. If you have ever been to a Broadway touring production at your local theatre, you probably have seen red buckets at the exits/entrances of the different seating areas and have witnessed cast members from the production talk about Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. If you live in central Ohio and have attended a show at the Palace or Ohio Theatres, you probably have heard them give a shout-out to LifeCare Alliance and Project OpenHand-Columbus!
Without funding partners like the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, LifeCare Alliance would not be able to serve our central Ohio neighbors with responsive, compassionate, and quality care.
To find out how you can make an impact in our Project OpenHand-Columbus clients lives, click here:
Learn more about Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS by visiting https://broadwaycares.org/
At Big Wheels 2018, LifeCare Alliance announced a $5 Million Match Campaign to secure the future, by building its Legacy Endowment.
The Legacy Endowment Campaign is designed to meet existing and future needs of LifeCare Alliance for decades to come.
An anonymous donor has generously committed to matching the first $5 million in Endowment gifts, beginning in 2018. The donation comes during a momentous occasion for LifeCare Alliance as the Agency celebrates its 120th anniversary.
This Campaign creates an opportunity for individuals and families impacted by the work of LifeCare Alliance to express their stewardship and leave their legacies in concrete and meaningful ways.
If you are interested in learning more about the Legacy Endowment Campaign or how you can become a member of the Catherine Nelson Black Society, please contact Chuck Gehring, President and CEO at 614-437-2801 or Rebecca Hurd, Director of Advancement at 614-437-2867.
