M 9 C H I 9 9 9 U L M E 1 1 H U M B E II 3
COMMUNIT^ONNECTIONI
FUTURE SEARCH NAVIGATES
THE DIRECTION OF HIV/AIDS SERVICES
NEW VOLUNTEER
’'MW 0
The future of HIV/AIDS in Western
North Carolina will be the topic of a
conference to be held at the First Baptist
Church in Asheville on March 12-14,
1999. Participants will include people
living with the disease and a broad
array of organizations and community
groups concerned with HIV/AIDS.
We have invited a broad array of people
who have a stake in the epidemic, says
Bob Davis, Chair of the Planning
Committee for the conference. That
covers a lot of different folks and orga
nizations, individuals with AIDS, AIDS
service organizations,. medical
providers, educators, funding organiza
tions, volunteers, churches and faith
communities, loved ones and caretakers
and on and on. AIDS has changed a lot
over the last few years. We have a very
TRESSA’S HOLDS EVENT TO HONOR BOBBIE HARDWICK
PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
On March 25th, Tressa's Downtown
Jazz Bar will host an event in memory
and honor of Bobbie Hardwick, a long
time friend of the GLBT Community.
The event, co-sponsored by Mountain
Xpress and Tressa's will be held annual
ly and is a fund raiser to support
Helpmate in its efforts to end domestic
violence in WNC.
The evenings festivities begin at 4 pm
with an invitation only cocktail party
featuring the music of Kat Williams and
Joe DiFeo. Then, at 8pm the bar will
open to the public, again featuring the
music of Kat and Joe. At 10pm, Tressa's
house band, Information Network, will
complex issue and we need as many
view points and talents as we can get on
how to deal with it.
Five organizations are co-sponsoring
the event: the Western North Carolina
HIV/AIDS Consortium, the New Hope
Community Health Center, the Western
North Carolina Community Health
Services, the Interfaith in Action
Coalition and the Western North
Carolina AIDS Project.
The AIDS population has become much
more diverse than in the early days of
the epidemic when the majority of
those infected were gay men. Today
people living with AIDS include hetero
sexual men and women, minorities of
color and age-groups from teen-agers to
senior citizens. AIDS service organiza
come on for an evening of dance and
celebration. In addition, Helpmate, one
of the local agencies that fights domestic
violence will be on hand to accept dona
tions and educate people about the ser
vices they provide in our community.
Tressa's has set the goal for this fund
raiser at $10,000. /
The event at Tressa's echos Governor
Hunt's promise to have "zero toler
ance" for domestic violence in North
Carolina. /
In a recent press conference Hunt pro
posed spending millions more-perhaps
$4.6 million next year-to increase the
number of shelters and other services
tions are seeing more and more families
struggling with the disease, especially
households headed by single-parent
mothers. /
There are 304 people reported to be liv
ing with HIV in Western North
Carolina. In the entire region there are
over 500 who have full-blown AIDS,
267 of them in Buncombe County. Man
of these individuals are living longer
thanks to new medications, but find
themselves caught up in a system that
was designed to help them die. Many
of us lost everything to this disease, and
in some cases the whole network of per
sonal support we had, Davis, himself
living with AIDS, points out. People are
broke, still have to deal with AIDS
Future continued on page 20
for victims. Other proposals call for
stricter enforcement and for training
more police and court workers.
"We're determined to ensure that North
Carolina is a place where, if you are a
victim of domestic violence, you can
find someone to turn to," he said. "You
can get away and you can have a chance
to regain your life." Hunt couldn't say
where the money will come from in a
tight budget year.
In 1997, the most recent year for avail
able statistics 70 of the 608 murders
statewide were domestic violence cases,
according to the N. C. Council for
Tressa’s continued on page 12
The Western North Carolina AIDS
Project (WNCAP) has begun a revi
talization of its' volunteer program
by hiring a new Volunteer
Coordinator, Stebbo Hill. Recently, at
WNCAP's open house, Stebbo out
lined WNCAP's services to people
living with AIDS in Western North
Carolina, as well as ways to join
WNCAP's "Community of Hope" by
providing service through the buddy
program, transportation, office
administration, reception, public
speaking, fundraising, committee
involvement, community outreach or
home repair.
Stebbo recently moved to the
Asheville area from Seattle,
Washington, where he served as the
Director of Volunteers for the
Chicken Soup Brigade, an organiza
tion providing food, home chore and
transportation to over 700 people liv
ing with AIDS in the Seattle area. He
WNCAP continued on page 18