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BRTA/LRTA in Action: Leadership Awards
The BRTA/LRTA programs honor businesses, labor groups, and other organizations that have created and implemented exemplary HIV/AIDS workplace programs.
Click on the links below to view profiles of previous award winners.
The Dude Angius Award
This CDC National Business and Labor Award honors a person who exemplifies the power of an individual when they are dedicated to an issue. The recipient demonstrates a high level of leadership and support for HIV/AIDS workplace programs and has been instrumental in driving involvement in the community, the workplace, and/or among peers.
Years ago Dushan (Dude) Angius, then president of the Rotary Club of Los Altos, shared his family's devastating experience with AIDS, an act that allowed others to follow, and began a path of action for his fellow rotary members.
One result was the creation of The Los Altos Story, a compassionate study of three AIDS cases in one community. This video has helped people around the world understand that AIDS is not about them, but about us. His courage also led to a movement throughout the Rotary organization to address HIV and AIDS as a community issue that includes business.
Dude has remained committed to the issue and served as an active supporter and partner of the BRTA/LRTA programs for more than nine years. Dude's legacy also continues at the Rotary Club of Los Altos, as they continue to participate in HIV/AIDS education and awareness activities.
Large Business
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
As one of the largest employers in the state of New Mexico, the economic impact of the Los Alamos National Laboratory is significant.
In 1994, approximately $125,000 was committed to design and implement an HIV/AIDS awareness program that would reach the laboratory's more than 10,000 workers. Assembling a talented team, the laboratory produced a nationally and internationally recognized HIV/AIDS workplace awareness program. The goals of this initiative were to reduce staff member/worker fears about AIDS and to replace the staggering statistics with the names, faces, and individual stories of the lives impacted by this disease.
LEVI STRAUSS & CO.
Levi Strauss was one of the first businesses in the world to implement a workplace policy on HIV/AIDS when it began formulating a comprehensive corporate response to HIV/AIDS in 1982. Elements of its programs include:
- An HIV/AIDS education session during new-employee orientation.
- A full range of company benefits for employees with HIV/AIDS.
- A company-produced video and supporting written materials about HIV/AIDS.
- A video and supporting materials aimed at helping employees talk with their families and community organizations about HIV/AIDS (in Spanish and English).
- An Asia Pacific AIDS Initiative to educate managers.
Small Business
SAILOR'S VALENTINE GALLERY
The Sailor's Valentine Gallery is a small, female-owned business in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Nantucket ranks fourth in the state of Massachusetts for the number of reported AIDS cases per capita.
After reading an article in the local newspaper about the impact of AIDS on Nantucket and the Nantucket AIDS Network's efforts to raise funds to provide HIV/AIDS services, gallery owner Carolyn Walsh offered to make the network the beneficiary of her gallery's silent art auction, held annually to benefit a local charitable organization. Her efforts helped raise more than a million dollars for HIV/AIDS programs and services on Nantucket. Funds raised with the support of the Sailor's Valentine Gallery have enabled the Nantucket AIDS Network to provide affordable housing for people with AIDS, offer transportation to the mainland for specialist medical care, hire a full-time executive director, and centralize all of its services at one site.
Labor Union
LOCAL 12 UAW, TOLEDO, OH
The mission of the United Auto Workers (UAW) is to provide the framework for the day-to-day operations of the union and set forth the rights, guarantees, and responsibilities of UAW members. Local 12 UAW has partnered with the American Red Cross to support and sponsor many community activities, including:
- Working on a Black History Month program that targeted three high schools and two junior high schools with high African-American and Hispanic enrollment. Presenters addressed the impact of HIV among youth within a community of color.
- Initiating a unique partnership with the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Greater Toledo for the Turning Promise into Practice program, which deals with the needs of the mentally ill, including the risk of HIV infection.
- Working with the American Red Cross to host an HIV Testing Day that had a record turnout.
NBA PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
In response to the news that Earvin "Magic" Johnson was living with HIV, the NBA Players Association created a partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health to produce the Winning Against AIDS program, a comprehensive educational program for members and their families, as well as for youth in communities where NBA players live and work. Elements of the program the association implemented include:
- Adopting policies that protect the rights of basketball players with HIV to compete in the NBA and provide for infection control that conforms to Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.
- Conducting mandatory annual HIV/AIDS training seminars for NBA players.
- Running seminars for players' wives and significant others that emphasize communicating with children about HIV/AIDS.
- Operating educational programs for young people that have been conducted in six cities in the United States and the Bahamas.
Organization
REGIONAL HIV/AIDS CONSORTIUM, NORTH CAROLINA
The work of the Regional HIV/AIDS Consortium, founded in 1990, is designed to foster and ensure a regional approach to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS, and to meet with compassion and dignity the needs of those affected by the disease.
In 1994, the Consortium reached out to corporate leaders to address the impact of HIV and AIDS in the workplace. The mission of the workplace alliance is to act individually and collectively to assist organizations in educating their staff/workers and families to respond to the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
HAWAII INDUSTRY VENTURE
The Hawaii Industry Venture is a voluntary coalition of business leaders that was formed in 1994 with the specific goal of promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Hawaiian workplaces. In the coalition's first three years, Venture members achieved the following results:
- Spoke directly with more than 1,000 employees at workplaces ranging from a rock quarry to a café.
- Addressed more than 1,300 employers through professional organizations such as the Rotary Club.
- Participated in six media events that generated newspaper, radio, and television coverage of workplace HIV/AIDS awareness programs.
- Distributed about 1,500 Venture-produced HIV/AIDS fact sheets, 2,400 HIV/AIDS brochures produced by other organizations, and 12,500 red HIV/AIDS awareness ribbons.
International
FORD MOTOR COMPANY OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
The HIV/AIDS workplace program at the Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa was developed during the second quarter of 1999. The company developed a comprehensive program to focus on education, testing, communication, and community involvement. Two HIV/AIDS program coordinators were hired to lead this initiative. The program reaches staff/workers, contract workers, pensioners, and their families. The company provides leadership on HIV/AIDS within the South African auto industry by serving as a resource and hosting an HIV/AIDS conference with other employers.
Manager and Leadership Training
THE HOME DEPOT
In 1991, The Home Depot began its HIV/AIDS educational outreach by creating a health promotion piece on safety regarding bodily fluids and blood and hosting a quarterly health promotion talk focusing on HIV/AIDS.
In 1994, The Home Depot partnered with the American Red Cross to conduct training for management personnel on HIV/AIDS in the workplace. The program has since expanded to include employee education seminars hosted by a trained American Red Cross workplace HIV/AIDS instructor at each Home Depot site across the country. By 1999, the company had offered 60 educational sessions, reaching 1,008 managers at a cost of about $19 per worker.
IBM
IBM was one of the first large multinational companies to take a global leadership position on HIV/AIDS. Elements of the workplace programs IBM implemented include:
- A position statement pledging that employees with HIV/AIDS would be treated in the same manner as employees with any chronic disease (issued in 1985).
- A three-point strategic framework for IBM's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, committing the company to provide assistance to employees affected by HIV/AIDS, accelerate education programs aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention, and support external programs to control and cure AIDS (endorsed in 1987).
- A briefing on HIV/AIDS for its 22,000 managers.
- A comprehensive employee education program to convey information about HIV/AIDS to IBM staff.
- A videotape on HIV/AIDS available for employee's home use.
Staff, Worker, and Member Education
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Pennsylvania's CorrectAIDS program targets inmates and staff in state correctional institutions within the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which has more than 12,500 employees. The program is designed to redirect and strengthen HIV prevention efforts within state correctional institutions.
Significant achievements of CorrectAIDS include increased awareness of HIV prevention practices and the effects of HIV, increased requests by inmates for voluntary HIV testing, and increased staff and inmate interactions. The CorrectAIDS program has been recognized by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The program has been presented as a model to several state and national conferences.
POLAROID CORPORATION
As a founding member of the New England Corporate Consortium for AIDS Education, the Polaroid Corporation developed an employee guide to HIV/AIDS and a supervisor's manual, both of which it donated to the consortium. Hundreds of U.S. companies have distributed copies of these educational materials to their employees. Other HIV/AIDS education and accommodations at Polaroid include:
- Four-hour HIV/AIDS awareness sessions for all employees in the United States.
- HIV/AIDS information and employee counseling provided by the AIDS Information Office.
- Articles about HIV/AIDS in the company newsletter and an AIDS resources section in the company library.
- Voluntary, confidential HIV antibody testing for employees, and support groups for employees who have HIV/AIDS or who are caring for family members with HIV/AIDS.
- A family AIDS education kit and HIV/AIDS awareness sessions for families both onsite and at schools and places of worship attended by Polaroid employees and their families.
Family Education
FARMWORKER JUSTICE FUND, INC.
The Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc. (FJF), along with two local partners, Puentes de Amistad y Campesinos Sin Fronteras (PDA/CSF) in Yuma, Arizona, and the Valley AIDS Council (VAC) in McAllen, Texas, trained 50 men, women, and adolescents from farmworker families to teach HIV/AIDS prevention to their peers in the two border communities.
Since March 1999, the Promotores de Salud (lay health educators) have reached more than 5,000 farmworker family members with an AIDS prevention message. In addition, they distributed thousands of fotonovelas, brochures, and condoms and made hundreds of referrals for HIV testing and other healthcare services.
UNUM LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA
Unum is the nation's leading provider of disability insurance and a leading provider of group life insurance, long-term care insurance, special risk insurance products, and employee benefit plans. Unum began to offer regular employee education on HIV/AIDS in 1987 and expanded its reach to members of employees' families. The company designed and produced an HIV/AIDS educational coloring book for children. Unum also invited local high school students to take part in roundtable discussions on adolescent sexuality and AIDS that were intended to help parents communicate more effectively with their children about sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Community Service, Volunteerism, and Philanthropy
THE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA
The Actors' Fund of America helps the entertainment community from coast to coast. The fund's human services program includes social services, career counseling, job training, and supportive housing.
The fund experienced significant changes and expansion as the social services staff continued to adapt to the changing face of AIDS. Originally focused on helping people who were dying from the disease, the fund now assists people living and working with AIDS. The fund takes care of daily living necessities, medical expenses, and other needs for its members. The fund annually takes care of all financial needs of more than 550 members of the entertainment industry.
GAP INC.
In 1996, more than 35,000 Gap employees took part in AIDS walks in more than 40 locations around the world, helping to raise more than $250,000. Gap was the grand sponsor of San Francisco's tenth annual AIDS walk, and the company's team of more than 1,000 employees was the largest corporate team to participate in the New York City AIDS Walk.
Other volunteer activities Gap Inc. employees participate in include:
- Delivering meals weekly to homebound people living with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco and New York City.
- Helping out at the Project Open Hand food bank in San Francisco, bagging and distributing food.
- Making holiday stockings and filling them with gift items for children with HIV/AIDS who are residents of a children's center in Harlem.
- Serving on the headquarters AIDS response team that reviews grant applications from HIV/AIDS service organizations and makes funding recommendations to the Gap Foundation.
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