Uprising: How one church helped with testing
By Becky Enchelmayer – Gallery Church, New York

At 8:00 am, on a crisp winter morning, the kind that makes bare fingers sting, no one wants to be on the street.  People hurriedly pass from doorway to doorway, and many scarcely shift their focus as someone presses a note card into their hands.  It’s the smiling face that catches them off guard.

On March 18, 2008, more than 300 volunteers committed one day to serve New York City in a rather atypical way as part of an initiative called City Uprising.  At 21 sites throughout the city, members of the Gallery Church along with a team of college students from around the country promoted a day of free rapid HIV testing, open to anyone who wanted it. In three hours, this legion of volunteers passed out thousands of promotional cards, and over 70 healthcare counselors tested 881 of their fellow New Yorkers – about as many tests as large clinics in New York expect to administer in about three months.

New York City has more cases of HIV than Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago combined.  In 2006, according to the NYC Department of Health's most recent statistics, there were 98,861 people living with the disease. 

"But there are about forty thousand New Yorkers who are positive but don't know it," said Dr. Theresa Mack of the Center for Comprehensive Care, CCC, who partnered with the Gallery Church to offer the testing.  "And the reason they don't know is because they've never been tested."

According to the Centers for Disease Control, before the introduction of the rapid HIV test in 2004, which requires only an oral swab and gives results in 20 minutes, one third of people who took a test didn't return for their results.  Now, nearly 99% of results are delivered.  Of the 881 tested at the City Uprising day, 13 tested positive.

In December 2007, according to Sally Ellwein the CCC’s special projects director, her center tested 825 people.  The 881 tests conducted as part of City Uprising was an impressive success. "And even those who didn't get tested were made aware," she said.

The disease is shadowed by a stigma that discourages people from wanting to be tested, or if they have been, from disclosing their status.   Many people, especially in more impoverished areas of the city like the Bronx, Harlem and deep within Brooklyn, don't know the risks of HIV or how efficient modern drugs are at treating it.  Even if they do have questions or want to take the test, most don’t even know where to start.

"Maybe they don't have contact with health professionals where it's elective," said Meg Chang, a stress management counselor from CCC who participated in the citywide testing day.  The opportunity to meet with an HIV counselor by choice, and in a relatively anonymous setting is “different than seeing your caseworker, and explaining things."

The CCC was impressed and inspired by the turnout.  They offer free testing every day in their clinics and hospitals, as well as in ten substance use sites throughout the city, and provide medical care to those who have the virus. 

“We believe that it is our responsibility as followers of Jesus to meet the needs of those around us,” said Aaron Coe, lead pastor at the Gallery Church.  One day of service made a tangible difference in the lives of over 850 members of their New York City community.

There are a number of organizations like CCC who work to put New Yorkers with HIV in touch with a whole host of free health treatment programs, counseling, and support groups.  The challenge is making their presence known in the neighborhoods they’re needed most; making strides to efface the stigma.

"If we say that this is a disease, and we treat it as such and not put people on the spot as to how they got it," said Dr. Mack, “but just say, if you have it, then we're going to love you the same way and help you get through so that you stay healthy:" this is the way to make a difference.