To The ACRIA Family:
I am pleased to announce that at its most recent meeting, the ACRIA Board of Directors voted unanimously to acquire an organization called Love Heals: The Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education.
We have long admired the work of Love Heals, the largest provider of HIV prevention and sexual education to young people in New York City schools.
The origin story of Love Heals is a tragic and powerful one. Alison Gertz was infected with HIV through a single sexual encounter at age 16 and died in 1992. Love Heals is Ali's legacy, founded by her three best friends.
Love Heals has reached over 630,000 young people through its education and prevention programs. ACRIA is honored and excited to play a role in growing and expanding Ali's legacy. We are confident that our work will be greater than the sum of its parts. With our core competencies, our national and international reach, and our research capacity, we offer Love Heals the opportunity to enhance and expand its work, perhaps even outside of New York City.
ACRIA will be joined by all members of the Love Heals staff and a number of outstanding board members. Everything about this new relationship has felt smart and has moved in good faith and enthusiasm about what we will be able to do together. Strategic, seamless acquisitions are not common in the nonprofit sector; we plan to be a model others can follow.
The work of the epidemic has and will continue to evolve. So too will ACRIA. The addition of Love Heals allows ACRIA to fill gaps in prevention strategies and provide a greater compliment of programs and services to people of all ages with lifesaving HIV prevention and health education.
We look forward to telling you more about the Love Heals program and will be sharing news in the days and weeks to come about new staff, new board members, and our specific plans for the future.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Bashein
Executive Director