Not just a house. A home and a family.

St. Philip House a program of  is not a single place. In fact, it is best described as a doorway to an improved life. St. Philip House is a program that addresses the housing and social service needs of people whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS in the Central Connecticut area.  Learn more about us...

Latest News

March 20th - National Native HIV?AIDS Awareness Day

March 20th is National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness day, a time to raise awareness about the presence of HIV and AIDS in our Native communities, which include American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians (collectively referred to as Native people). This day is an opportunity to learn more about the need for HIV testing among Native Americans, and ways that everyone can help decrease the stigma.

Learn more at nnhaad.org.

Women & Girls - HIV/AIDS

According to the CDC, 1 in 5 new HIV diagnoses in 2017 were among women. National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, sponsored by the Office of Women's Health of the Department of Health and Human Services, is observed on March 10th. The goals of this event are to raise awareness about the need for all women, pregnant women, to be tested and treated for HIV.

Learn more at womenshealth.gov/nwghaad

PrEP - What is PrEP and how can it help you?

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) is when people at risk for HIV take daily medicine to prevent HIV. PrEP can stop HIV from taking hold and spreading throughout your body. When taken daily, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV from sex or injection drug use. PrEP is much less effective when it is not taken consistently.

Studies have shown that PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% when taken daily. Among people who inject drugs, PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV by at least 74% when taken daily.

For more information, please follow the link below to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep.html

December, 2019

Connecticut provides core medical and supportive services to people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) and their families through various "HIV/AIDS service and community-based organizations." These services include: medical case management, primary medical care, oral health, mental health, substance abuse-outpatient, medical nutrition therapy, HIV-related medications, health insurance premium and cost sharing assistance, home health care, home-and-community based services, hospice care, medical transportation, housing-related services, food bank/meals, psychosocial support, linguistic services and related emergency financial assistance. Eligible PLWHA can access these core medical and support services throughout Connecticut at no cost to them.

For additional information, contact the Department of Public Health’s Health Care and Support Services Unit at 1-860-509-7806.

AIDS Drug Assistance

The Connecticut AIDS Drug Assistance Program (CADAP) can help pay for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved HIV-related drug treatments. There is no asset limit and the income limit is 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. Physician verification of HIV/AIDS and proof of Connecticut residency is required.

For more information, call CADAP Toll-Free at 1-800-233-2503.

AIDS Awareness Day - May 22, 2019

Join the ACT Connecticut community on Wednesday, May 22 on the North Steps of the State Capitol in Hartford to make your voice heard! Urge your legislators to hold the line on AIDS services, AIDS housing, and syringe services funding.

Interested in Getting Involved?

Contact Shawn M. Lang, Deputy Director, at 860-247-2437 x319 for more information.

POLICY UPDATE
FY19 Budget Update
In the FY19 Omnibus bill, HOPWA received $393M, which is an $18M increase over FY18! This is the amount NAHC advocated for and this allocation of $393M ensures that no district loses funding from the previous year.

Thank you to everyone who called and wrote their Senators and House Representatives. Please be sure to thank them for this allocation.

FY20 Budget Update
The National AIDS Housing Coalition is advocating for $406M HOPWA funding in FY20. This allocation will ensure that districts do not lose money as Modernization is implemented. This $13M increase from the FY19 allocation will continue to provide housing for very low-income people living with HIV.

ACT: NAHC is circulating a letter to support $406M in HOPWA funding in FY20. Please consider that your organization signs on to this letter to support HOPWA, which is crucial in ending the HIV epidemic. Read the letter here.

If your organization has not signed on yet, please click here
to sign on by March 4th.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2018

Saturday, December 1st is World AIDS Day and the national AIDS Housing Coalition applauds the progress we have made in ending the HIV epidemic, while acknowledging the work that needs to be done to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to care, and address health inequities. This yea's theme "saving Lives through Leadership and Partnerships" reminds us that through collaboration and empowering leaders, we can see an end to HIV. Collaborations among health professionals, policy makers, housing providers, researchers, and people with lived experience are necessary to prevent new HIV infections, care for those who are living with HIV/AIDS, and to ultimately end the epidemic. 

NAHC knows that access to stable, supportive housing leads to better health outcomes including significantly greater viral suppression rates. With the current affordable housing crisis, it is critical to include housing as a cornerstone of any plan to end new HIV infections in this country. The National AIDS Housing Coalition calls on the Federal government to strategically invest in domestic HIV programs, housing programs like Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), and healthcare access for all to ensure that people living with and at risk for HIV have access to the most basic needs in life. 

NAHC is pleased to announce that the Act Now End AIDS coalition (a national cohort of HIV service organizations, providers, and people living with HIV), in concert with AIDS United, has developed a policy paper - Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States: A Roadmap for Federal Action - calling on the federal government to officially declare that it is our goal to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2025 and enact legislative and regulatory changes to achieve this goal. 250 national, regional, state, local, and global organizations have signed on to the plan, including the National AIDS Housing Coalition. We put our full support behind this plan and believe that we can end the US HIV epidemic by 2025. 

Chrysalis Center recently held their Annual Comedy Night to benefit St. Philip House of Plainville, a program of Chrysalis Center.

Thanks to many generous donations, this year's Comedy Night event was a great success, raising much need funding for St. Philip House. Over 100 guests attended the evneing of great food, good friends and lots of laughs!

To learn more about the St. Philip House program or make a donation, please contact Ellyn Laramie at elaramie@chrysalisctnerct.org or 860.263.4419.

Chrysalis Center staff recently attended the 2018 ACT Annual Meeting.

A portion of the meeting was dedicated to introducing U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable). This is the message of a new UNAIDS Explainer. With 20 years of evidence demonstrating that HIV treatment is highly effective in reducing the transmission of HIV, the evidence is now clear that people living with HIV with an undetectable viral load cannot transmit HIV sexually.

For many people living with HIV, the news that they can no longer transmit HIV sexually is life-changing. In addition to being able to choose to have sex without a condom, many people living with HIV who are virally suppressed feel liberated from the stigma associated with living with the virus. The awareness that they can no longer transmit HIV sexually can provide people living with HIV with a strong sense of being agents of prevention in their approach to new or existing relationships.

The new UNAIDS Explainer series aims to inform readers about key or emerging issues in the AIDS response. With recommendations for program managers and advice for national responses, they are short but informative snapshots of the current knowledge about an area of the AIDS response.