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Our History

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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.

1983

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.

1986
AIDS Project Los Angeles
Necessities of Life Program

One of APLA Health’s most critically needed services, our Necessities of Life Program (NOLP), launches. NOLP’s origins began as a food pantry started by Ken and Alfia Hollywood, who ran a $35-a-week food voucher program out of their movie memorabilia store. In 1986, APLA Health worked with the Hollywoods to open the first Necessities of Life Program food pantry to for people with HIV/AIDS.

AIDS Project Los Angeles
Government Affairs

APLA establishes a Government Affairs Division. Its goals were to increase state and local resources for AIDS prevention, education and care, as well as to promote fair and humane HIV/AIDS legislation.

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.

1987
Serra Project
Serra Project Founded

The Serra Project founded under the sponsorship of seven major Los Angeles County hospitals and the Catholic Archdiocese in response to the growing number of people left homeless by their battle with acute HIV/AIDS.

AIDS Project Los Angeles
New Hope

On March 20, 1987, the fight against HIV/AIDS changed forever when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved zidovudine (AZT) — the first drug ever proven to slow the progression of HIV. For the first time, there was hope that treatment could extend lives and change the trajectory of the epidemic. As the most effective weapon against HIV/AIDS at the time, AZT marked the dawn of antiretroviral therapy and a turning point in the battle against the virus.

Meanwhile, it was only in June 1987, at the third International AIDS Conference, that President Reagan first mentioned the word “AIDS” in public.

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.

1988
Serra Project
First Group Home

In 1988, the Serra Project opened the first group home in the City of Los Angeles to later be state licensed as a Residential Care Facility for the Chronically Ill (RCFCI). The home continues to serve destitute, AIDS-impacted adults in need of assisted living and hospice care.

AIDS Project Los Angeles
World AIDS Day

The world marks the first-ever observance of World AIDS Day on December 1, a historic moment in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Designated by the World Health Organization and backed by the United Nations, this inaugural event unites people across the globe under the theme: “Join the Worldwide Effort.”

AIDS Project Los Angeles
AIDS Memorial Quilt

Following its inaugural display on the National Mall in Washington D.C. the previous October, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was presented in Pauley Pavilion at UCLA in April 1988 as celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends read aloud the 1,920 names of the people represented. Panels were added at each stop of the national tour, and by the end the Quilt consisted of more than 6,000 panels. Today, the AIDS Memorial Quilt includes nearly 50,000 panels and is preserved by the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco.

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.

1989
Aid for AIDS
“Best in Drag Show”

The first iteration of “Best in Drag Show” (known then as “Battle for the Tiara”) launched as a privately organized event with funds benefiting Aid for AIDS.

AIDS Project Los Angeles
Public Policy Challenges

At APLA, public policy staff helped to defeat dangerous initiatives — including proposals to quarantine gay men — placed on the ballot by extremists determined to exploit the epidemic for political gain.

On a state level, APLA established Sacramento-based AIDS Project Advocacy Services to ensure that responsible legislation would get a fair hearing in the state Capitol.

In Washington, Congress approved $30 million in emergency funding to the states for AZT. Yet it also passed the Helms Amendment, which banned the use of federal funds for AIDS education materials that “promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities” — the infamous “no promo homo policy.”

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.

2021
APLA Health
APLA & AAH Merge

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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.

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