Go to the Community Townhall at API Wellness Center in San Francisco!

Thursday, January 28th from 4 - 6 pm

730 Polk Street, 4th Floor.


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Letter from the E.D.:

With a heavy heart, I write to you—our supporters, clients, and community members—to communicate some painful changes at Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center. Across the world, we are all experiencing a difficult start to 2010. The earthquake in Haiti is causing unimaginable hardship for countless families and communities, and our hearts and prayers are with them. Closer to home, we at A&PI Wellness Center are also going through a difficult transition, and our hearts and prayers are also with those most affected by the upcoming changes. We have had to make some painful decisions about our service delivery model in Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties that will undeniably affect our HIV-positive clients.

Decreased funding at the national, state and local levels have overtaxed A&PI Wellness Center’s budget, necessitating drastic cuts to ensure long-term sustainability. Because of this, we closed our operations in Oakland, CA and Daly City, CA on January 15, 2010. Our 45 clients in these areas are being triaged to their respective county services. Services at our San Francisco office will remain open. This decision hurts, but it could not be avoided. We must be fiscally responsible in order to secure the future of our services to the community. We are committed to this goal, to building a vital and healthy future.

This decision was made in full consultation with the Board of Directors and was a direct response to ongoing agency budget reductions. Over the past three years, public and private funds to our programs and services for HIV-positive Asians & Pacific Islanders have been reduced by over $350,000 annually, representing over 40% of the budget for these programs. Despite this decline in funding, A&PI Wellness Center has carried a financial deficit for the past several years in order to maintain our services. We continued to provide services in Alameda and San Mateo Counties without any dedicated support from the state or local governments.

Still, A&PI Wellness Center worked hard to avert any reduction in services, opting instead to aggressively pursue new funding sources and institute other cost-saving measures. Over the past year, we reduced our overall workforce by 20%. We also reduced non-HIV-positive client services by $150,000 through the end of our fiscal year (in the form of overall agency salary reductions, hiring freezes, and streamlined expenses). Despite these strategies, approximately $80,000 of forecasted revenue for HIV direct services failed to come through in 2009, leading to a projected fiscal year-end deficit of $160,000 for these programs alone. A deficit of this magnitude jeopardizes the future of A&PI Wellness Center and demanded immediate corrective action.

We know these painful and difficult decisions directly impact the health and well-being of many of our clients and community members. We share this loss with you. I understand and am terribly sorry AND I know we needed to do this. We needed to do this to ensure we are here to stay. We must continue to support all our communities—A&PI youth, transwomen and transmen, gay and bisexual men—and the Asians and Pacific Islanders living with HIV most affected by these changes. We will continue to advocate and fight for more resources and health services on behalf of all our clients. We will work to secure long-term A&PI HIV health services for our communities.

In San Francisco, HIV-positive clients will still be able to access services at our main office’s on-site clinic (730 Polk Street), including mental health services and intensive case management services. We will also continue to provide our HIV and Hepatitis testing services in addition to our health education programs for the transgender community, gay and bisexual men, and LGBT youth. These programs increase sexual health awareness and sensitivity to issues facing people living with HIV. Without them, we cannot hope to build a healthy community or prevent new HIV infections.

A&PI Wellness Center Board Chair Mike Rabanal addressed this issue recently, saying: “While HIV case management services outside San Francisco have been eliminated, a wealth of services delivered by our San Francisco-based staff will continue, and we encourage our clients outside of San Francisco to access these resources to the extent they can. These difficult events have made clear the need to invest in the expansion of our policy advocacy program as well as the implementation of our free health clinic. These initiatives will allow us to fight for the continued funding of critical client service programs. We must fight to implement a more sustainable model of health delivery for our clients, less reliant on government-based funding.”

A&PI Wellness Center is hosting a Community Town Hall meeting to communicate the organizational changes being implemented and our vision and plan for the future. We know everyone is invested in the future health of the A&PI community, and we appreciate your concern and feedback. Feel free to attend the meeting this coming Thursday, January 28th from 4–6pm at 730 Polk Street.

I’d like to say a deep and heartfelt good-bye to our staff leaders who are departing—thank you for your many years of commitment, expertise, service and leadership on behalf of the agency. Your collective contributions are immense and will be missed deeply.

I know that some of you may be troubled by this news. Please know that my virtual door is always open to you (lance@apiwellness.org).

Take good care,

Lance Toma

Lance Toma, LCSW
Executive Director
- APIWC