Realizing that funds were needed to educate the community and prevent the spread of the disease, the founders enlisted the help of other friends (who became many of APLA’s early volunteers) and held a Christmas benefit. The party raised more than $7,000, which became the seed money for a new organization. Recognizing that AIDS was not just a gay disease, the founders named the organization AIDS Project Los Angeles. The first board of directors was elected on January 14, 1983.
The Founding of AIDS Project Los Angeles
In October 1982, the four founders of AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA)—Nancy Cole Sawaya, Matt Redman, Ervin Munro, and Max Drew—attended an emergency meeting at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. The meeting featured a presentation by a representative from San Francisco’s Kaposi’s Sarcoma Foundation about Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease (GRID), one of the early names for AIDS.
Because fears about the new disease were rampant, these four friends set up a telephone hotline to answer questions from the community. They gathered the limited information available and began hotline trainings, with twelve volunteers in the initial group. The hotline was operated from a closet in the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, where volunteers answered a single telephone and read information from a one-page fact sheet.
Realizing that funds were needed to educate the community and prevent the spread of the disease, the founders enlisted the help of other friends (who became many of APLA’s early volunteers) and held a Christmas benefit. The party raised more than $7,000, which became the seed money for a new organization. Recognizing that AIDS was not just a gay disease, the founders named the organization AIDS Project Los Angeles. The first board of directors was elected on January 14, 1983.
Candlelight March
From its earliest years, efforts to influence public policy have been a core component of APLA’s mission. In May 1983, APLA sponsored a candlelight march at the Federal Building in Westwood that brought out a crowd of more than 5,000 people. The march was a turning point for community involvement in the struggle against AIDS.
The Founding of Aid for AIDS
Aid for AIDS was founded in 1983 by a small group of friends in the greater Hollywood area to help others in the community devastated by AIDS. By providing emergency rent, mortgage, and utility payments, AFA allowed people to die with dignity in their own homes.
A Year of Firsts
By spring, APLA had served just five clients. That number would grow to 100 by the end of the year. A core of services at AIDS Project Los Angeles took root over the course of that first year.
A Home Hospital and Hospice visitation Program was founded, which soon became the Buddy Program.
In 1983, the agency also produced and distributed its first brochure on AIDS. It answered basic questions about the disease in English and Spanish. APLA has educated the community ever since to prevent new cases of HIV infection, to empower communities to stay healthy, and to improve the quality of life for people who are living with HIV.
The Hotline — a model of its kind for the nation — continued to educate the community. In its first 18 months, 20,000 calls were handled by volunteers.
A $35-a-week food voucher program for people with AIDS began operating within a movie memorabilia store in Hollywood.
Realizing that funds were needed to educate the community and prevent the spread of the disease, the founders enlisted the help of other friends (who became many of APLA’s early volunteers) and held a Christmas benefit. The party raised more than $7,000, which became the seed money for a new organization. Recognizing that AIDS was not just a gay disease, the founders named the organization AIDS Project Los Angeles. The first board of directors was elected on January 14, 1983.
Housing Services
From the beginning, the number of clients served by APLA grew at a staggering rate. In early 1983, there were five clients. At the end of 1983, there were 100, and by the middle of 1984 there were 200. APLA’s first client service began when early volunteers visited patients at their hospital beds. In early 1984, APLA opened Mansfield House, a three-bedroom hospice, and began offering recreational services and legal, financial and insurance counseling. Support groups were also organized to help people with AIDS and their loved ones.
APLA created new programs during the ensuing years to meet the growing needs of people with AIDS. A program to address housing needs, begun in 1984, has since become a comprehensive Residential Services Program.
Early Fundraisers
Many early fundraising events were held in gay bars and discos as the gay and lesbian community mobilized to fight AIDS. An early fundraiser at Studio One in March 1984, featuring Joan Rivers, raised $45,000 for APLA, L.A. Shanti, and Aid for AIDS.
Realizing that funds were needed to educate the community and prevent the spread of the disease, the founders enlisted the help of other friends (who became many of APLA’s early volunteers) and held a Christmas benefit. The party raised more than $7,000, which became the seed money for a new organization. Recognizing that AIDS was not just a gay disease, the founders named the organization AIDS Project Los Angeles. The first board of directors was elected on January 14, 1983.
Dental Services
Client need, as well as misinformation about how AIDS is contracted, led to establishment of the Raymond E. Greene Dental Clinic, the first dental clinic dedicated to AIDS patients in the country. The clinic, which opened in March 1985, was based in a trailer in West Hollywood Park.
AIDS Walk Los Angeles
Just days after Rock Hudson's announcement that he had AIDS, APLA held the world’s first AIDS Walk Los Angeles event at Paramount Studios on July 28, 1985. The organizers of AIDS Walk Los Angeles hoped to raise $100,000 that first year, but instead a tide of more than 4,500 walkers raised $673,000.
Commitment to Life
APLA throws first “Commitment to Life” gala, honoring Betty Ford, and raises $1.3 million with Elizabeth Taylor as host.
First Major Educational Campaign
The now-famous “LA Cares” ads were produced in conjunction with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. They featured a sweet and motherly character who taught her “boys” about safer sex. Comprised of billboards, public service announcements, and print advertising, the campaign included graphic safer sex guides for gay men titled “Can We Talk?” and “Mother’s Handy Sex Guide.” For a wider audience, APLA and the Center ran a “Southern California Cares” campaign, with the theme “Fight the Fear With the Facts.”
Realizing that funds were needed to educate the community and prevent the spread of the disease, the founders enlisted the help of other friends (who became many of APLA’s early volunteers) and held a Christmas benefit. The party raised more than $7,000, which became the seed money for a new organization. Recognizing that AIDS was not just a gay disease, the founders named the organization AIDS Project Los Angeles. The first board of directors was elected on January 14, 1983.
