Knowing Matters: Sexual Health and Wellness Program
AIDS Walk New York, 2019.
Launched in 2015, Knowing Matters is the Caribbean Equality Project's Sexual Health and Wellness program, breaking the silence about HIV/AIDS through education, films, performing arts, and promoting prevention while offering support to the Caribbean LGBTQ+ community living with HIV in New York City. The Knowing Matters community educational programming and direct services center on culturally-competent mental health, healing, storytelling, and sharing vital government resources available for those impacted by HIV in Caribbean-centric neighborhoods in New York City. The program creates intergenerational dialogue surrounding LGBTQ+ immigrant sexual health, emphasizing critical, culturally relevant gender-sensitive education, FREE HIV and Hepatitis C testing, full STI screening, PEP/PrEP information, and linkage to health insurance.
Under this program, Caribbean Equality Project has hosted 23 safe sex workshops, reaching over 1,200 people, and organized seven in-person and virtual World AIDS Day commemorations in partnership with the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, Camba, Apicha Community Health Center, and Bloodline Dance Theater in Queens and Brooklyn. In addition to organizing community testing and educational outreach events to destigmatize HIV, the organization participates in the annual AIDS Walk New York to create visibility for LGBTQ+ immigrants and asylum seekers to affirm their right to life-saving care, treatment, and love.
Direct Services offered through Knowing Matters:
FREE rapid, on-the-spot HIV Testing and Hepatitis C & full STI Screening
Linkage to Health Insurance, Care, & Individual Counseling
Access to PrEP, PEP & Condoms
Linking HIV-Impacted Immigrants to Quality Care and Housing
HIV Prevention & Comprehensive Sex Education
Asylum and Immigration Services
On National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2023, Caribbean Equality Project joined NYC Councilmember Pierina Sanchez, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and community partners for a press conference to launch Intro 435, a bill that will ensure accessibility to rapid testing for sexually transmitted infections in all boroughs, prioritizing communities in boroughs that have higher infection rates.
“Intro 435 will finally focus on racial disparity in accessing sexual health resources that have long created inequities in Black and Brown immigrant communities. Your neighborhood, immigration status, socio-economic background, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex should not be barriers to health services in NYC. Knowing your HIV status matters, and it starts with getting tested. We have been living within colliding pandemics for decades. If there’s one thing, COVID-19 taught us, is that health crises disproportionately impact undocumented, low-income, LGBTQ+, and immigrant communities, but we know our elected officials hold the power to create change. Today, I am reminding the City Council of your promise to protect all New Yorkers. Pass Intro 435, so we can love and protect each other safely,” said our Founder and Executive Director, Mohamed Q. Amin.
According to a 2018 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene HIV Epidemiology research, the highest incidences of new diagnoses for HIV among foreign-born New Yorkers were among people born in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, and Guyana.
Annual Knowing Matters supportive events include:
World AIDS Day: This is a crucial component that bridges the core concepts of Knowing Matters to the worldwide commemoration of those impacted by HIV/AIDS. This day exemplifies what it means to get tested, to know one’s status (because knowing IS beautiful!), and to access quality (health and mental wellness) care through linkages to organizations in NYC. CEP also offers educational and inspirational presentations at our annual commemoration of World AIDS Day: this takes the form of a remembrance vigil and storytelling via our documentary campaign series “My Truth, My Story.”
Live Yuh Life: is CEP’s annual social event that offers cultural entertainment, food, fun, and networking, fused with education and advocacy. This Caribbean LGBTQ+ mixer and benefit support the organization’s Knowing Matters HIV/AIDS outreach program and participation in the annual AIDS Walk NY movement. At this event, CEP offers free HIV/AIDS and STI testing, information on sexual health and wellness, and linkages to health care services.
AIDS Walk NY: CEP proudly participates in AIDS Walk NY, the largest single-day HIV/AIDS fundraising event in the world. This walk supports our very own Knowing Matters HIV/AIDS outreach program. We walk as a part of our collaborative health outreach to break the silence about HIV/AIDS while promoting education, prevention, and support to the Caribbean LGBTQ+ community living with HIV and AIDS.
This is CEP's movement to end stigma, empower and change lives, as we work together in "getting to ZERO: ZERO new HIV infections, ZERO discrimination, and ZERO AIDS-related deaths.” Customarily, we walk in Caribbean carnival-inspired apparel, our country colors, or just as we are.
