Abounding Prosperity’s HIV Impact and Legacy

National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (September 18, 2023): Organizational Profile: Abounding Prosperity

1. What’s your organization’s story and its mission?  

In November of 2005, Abounding Prosperity (AP, Inc.) was born out of the response to community needs. I say needs, plural, because we sat in the nexus of the community addressing psycho-social, health, and economic barriers through risk-driven and based proclivities that lent themselves to sustaining burdens within systems and structures. One of those systems was health. Almost 20 years ago, HIV rates amongst black gay men, particularly in the South, were astronomical and were further exacerbated by the impacts of broken and stigmatized familial structures and our social/sexual networks. While this epidemic was challenging for certain communities, our founder saw it as an opportunity to drive resources for black men in general who served as one of the most marginalized communities.

Kirk Myers-Hill, working with and being a part of the direct LGBTQ community, really saw the need for introducing the dynamic of addressing black gay men from the standpoint of community and family which in truth is synonymous for a lot of us. Kirk didn’t just mean given families, he meant chosen families as well. And so out of the acknowledgement of multiple disparities, and the lack of black led and operationalized organizations that could address specifically health disparities, came Abounding Prosperity Inc. Its mission was crafted through the lens of advocacy which states the issue but also the solution. At inception, our mission was driven as being rooted in the purpose of responding to social and health disparities that continued to have a devastating impact on Black men and their families in Dallas County. Our mission has since grown to provide equitable services that address health, social and economic disparities among Black Americans with a particular emphasis on gay & bisexual men, cisgender women, transgender women, and their families.   

2. How is your organization helping fight age-related issues affecting those living and aging with HIV?

Abounding Prosperity (AP, Inc.) is helping fight age-related issues affecting and effecting those living and aging with HIV in a few ways. First and foremost, we intentionally have created partnering mechanisms through active listening and response activities with our aging populations. What we mean by that is really allowing the community to drive and inform their needs from not only an intersectional perspective but relaying those needs in ways that inform how we continue to remain culturally sensitive while leading with humility. What folks fail to realize is that our current aging population really is serving as the blue-print, or “first class” if you will, of how we will meaningfully partner and provide support for future classes of folks. AP, Inc. has been intentional about recruiting and intentionally navigating resources into programs that really speak to the specificity of need with our aging communities. And not just aging in general, the sub-populations and differential barriers that come with for instance being a black-trans identified person who is aging, black same gender loving individual who is aging, etc. Those considerations and programming support needs look very different and so with greatest intent, we aim to provide support in ways that make sense. We also understand that HIV is not only HIV. It is informed and sustained by structural challenges created by a host of “isms” and stigma. So really addressing those needs like housing, workforce development, mental health, substance use, and just really speaking to overall health and wellness have been the avenue(s) of support we have tried to marry with our aging communities.

3. What does National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAD) mean to your organization?

This day…this annual day serves as the reminder of where we are and where we have been. The acknowledgment of stories from a collection of citizens who have navigated through the epidemic and dually partnering “syndemics,” like racial oppression, stigma, and even Covid-19. It spells out what front facing resiliency looks like while serving as a reminder that there are a blanket of memories that speak to the lived/living experiences that exhibit the true story and demonstration of HIV’s impact on community. But it is also a day of celebration as we are given the opportunity to celebrate those individuals that inform how we survive, how we love, how we uniquely spell out our history in a way that we are not giving up ownership because of hurt, but we are truly embracing systems of change even when they have not worked in our favor. This day is truly a day where we can reflect and celebrate.

4. It’s 2023, 40 years after the Denver principles were first drafted. Are they still relevant today? What would you add or change if anything given all that has come to pass and your organization’s work in this area?

The Denver principles are certainly the breath of life for our advocacy efforts through our programming. As past is prologue, we see not only our basic human rights and civil liberties being threatened by bureaucracy. Those foundational calls to action for the rights of people living with HIV are essential. In many ways, they are the preamble to the many pleas for justice and equity we have seen everywhere from the ground to the legislative level. We cannot talk about any movement, progress, or even the notion of restorative justice without acknowledgement of the Denver principles. I wouldn’t change a piece of history that dictates so much of this work on all levels. It would seem scrupulous to do so. The only thing I can say to add in supplement to the work that we could add to this area is simple…building.  

Continue to build and adapt the intentionality behind these principles for communities in the South and specifically for Dallas County. I think arbitrarily that this work continues to sustain and evolve with new projects, programs, young advocates, and supportive legislation that aiming to move the needle and dial of the movement in progressive ways. These principles should and will always stand true to community.