Syracuse, NY -- An HIV/AIDS summit Friday called for HIV/AIDS education in the Syracuse school district and testing for prisoners as they enter and leave prison. The Syracuse Black Leadership Commission on AIDS sponsored the summit for clergy and agencies that provide HIV/AIDS services. The primary goal of the conference was to address “the stigma and silence” that has surrounded...
Syracuse, NY -- An HIV/AIDS summit Friday called for HIV/AIDS education in the Syracuse school district and testing for prisoners as they enter and leave prison.
The Syracuse Black Leadership Commission on AIDS sponsored the summit for clergy and agencies that provide HIV/AIDS services.
The primary goal of the conference was to address “the stigma and silence” that has surrounded the disease, which hits the minority community disproportionately hard, said Rev. Chauncey Brown, who heads the Syracuse Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.
Onondaga County has seen an alarming spike in HIV cases in men younger than 25, a disproportionate number of whom are black or Latino.
Brown said one group from the summit will devise a plan for getting the Syracuse school board to adopt an HIV/AIDS education curriculum. Another group will do the same for getting the state Legislature to require routine HIV/AIDS testing for prisoners entering and leaving prison, Brown said.
About 20 congregations were represented at the meeting, Brown said. Some of the pastors at the summit who had never done any HIV/AIDS work left committed at least to discuss getting involved, Brown said. “We had a great dialogue,” Brown said.
One of his goals is to get the clergy and agencies to talk more about their sometimes different perspectives, to come to terms with them and work more effectively together. He said local black clergy are reaching the point now where they are looking at HIV/AIDS as a health issue rather than a moral issue, he said.
But agencies need to understand the clergy’s perspective, too, Brown said. “For so long nobody has been sensitive on either side,” he said.
H. Bernard Alex has a foot in both of the groups. He directs the FACES, an HIV/AIDS outreach and education program at the Southwest Community Center. Alex also is the pastor of Victory Temple Fellowship Church.
Clergy at the summit were supportive, Alex said. “My greatest desire is for people to be inspired to share information. Accurate information,” he said.
The scheduled keynote speaker for the summit, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, did not make the meeting because of flight delays.
Contact Maureen Nolan at 470-2185 or mnolan@syracuse.com.