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

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.

Please join us for a fabulous evening of laughter at our Annual Comedy Night to benefit St. Philip House on Saturday, November 3rd!

Chrysalis Center will once again be holding Comedy Night at Nuccis Restuarant, 164 Central Street, Bristol from 7 pm to 10 pm featuring comedians: 

• Howie Mason
• Dr. Jay Sutay
• Kareem Blue

Each $50 ticket includes wine & beer cocktail hour (7-8 pm), delicious appetizers and an italian buffet dinner. Proceeds from this event will be used to support those living with HIV/AIDS and their families involved with St. Philip House, a program of Chrysalis Center. 

To purchase tickets, please click on the link below:

https://comedynightsph.bpt.me/

Hartford Nonprofit Launches Mobile Pharmacy

BY JOE COOPER

8/8/2018

CRT offers free HIV testing services here in Hartford, and now is providing a free Pharmacy program for people living with HIV that includes private, home delivery of prescription medications.

Hartford support nonprofit Community Renewal Team (CRT) says it has partnered with a New York-based pharmacy to provide a free mobile pharmacy service to people who are HIV positive.

CRT says patients will receive free prescribed medications at their home, which includes no co-pay. Those enrolled may also receive free vitamins, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, among other healthcare products.

Prospective patients are required to seek a clinician or CRT case manager to enroll in the free program. To qualify, individuals must be HIV positive and have either Medicare or private health insurance and must meet low-income requirements. The program does not serve Husky patients.

© 2018 HartfordBusiness.com

Despite Progress, HIV Racial Divide Persists

July 23, 2018 - MacKenzie Rigg and Jake Kara

The Connecticut Mirror recently published the attached report. Please follow the link below to view.

https://ctmirror.org/2018/07/23/despite-progress-hiv-racial-divide-persists/

African-Americans Still Disproportionately Affected by HIV

June 5, 2018 -  UConn Communications

African-Americans are still much more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white Americans. A new review paper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community, published in Springer’s Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, shows that despite recent drops in HIV diagnoses across every population in the U.S., there are still great disparities between ethnic groups. The team publishing the paper, was led by Dr. Cato T. Laurencin of UConn Health.

A decade ago, Laurencin and his team published a call for action paper that highlighted high numbers of HIV diagnoses in the African-American community. The new follow-up paper draws on data from surveys such as the 2010 United States Census and the 2016 HIV Surveillance Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Worryingly, the paper’s analysis shows that the trends highlighted 10 years ago have continued, and in some regards worsened. For male and female populations in 2016, Blacks were 8.4 times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with HIV, whereas in 2005 they were 7.9 times more likely. Specifically, the number of Black males diagnosed with the disease in 2005 was 9,969 and increased by 29 percent to 12,890 in 2016.

We believe that a concerted, re-dedicated effort – as seen with other national health emergencies, such as the opioid crisis – can create meaningful change in the decade to come. — Dr. Cato Laurencin

Black male-to-male sexual contact was the most common form of transmission of HIV, and the number of men that have sex with men who were diagnosed with HIV increased 154 percent, from 4,020 in 2005 to 10,233 in 2016. Laurencin and his team point out that if this trend continues, one in two Black men who engage in sexual contact with men will receive an HIV diagnosis in their lifetimes.

The number of African-American females diagnosed with HIV through heterosexual contact increased by 75 percent from 2,392 in 2005 to 4,189 in 2016, and there was also a 76 percent increase in HIV diagnoses among heterosexual Black men in the same time period.

“It is clear that much more needs to be done to address the fact that African-Americans continue to be overrepresented across all categories of transmission,” says Laurencin.

Laurencin and his team recommend a five-fold plan aimed at healthcare practitioners and community advocates. The plan includes working to eliminate prejudices and unconscious biases when treating patients and employing new technology and techniques to help prevent or eradicate HIV/AIDs. Working toward reducing secondary factors such as incarceration rates, poverty, STDs, and other circumstances that increase the chances of contracting HIV is another recommendation.

“While higher rates of poverty and prevalence of negative socio-economic determinants in the African-American community are important underlying factors,” says Laurencin, “we believe that a concerted, re-dedicated effort – as seen with other national health emergencies, such as the opioid crisis – can create meaningful change in the decade to come.”

St. Philip House, a program of Chrysalis Center, hosts Plainville Community Services Providers Group

Members of the group meet monthly to discuss many of the following items:

• Information and Referral Services 

• Assessment Services 

• Advocacy Services 

• Case Management Services 

• Assistance with Other Agency Applications 

• Screening for Plainville Food Bank, Fuel Bank and Holiday Program Referrals 

• Screening for the T.P. Strong Fund 

• Screening for and Provision of Emergency Assistance to residents to prevent Hunger, Homelessness and Illness 

• Consultation & Assistance to Other Town Departments and Community Agencies on Social Service Matters 

• Child & Elderly Protective Services Referrals 

• Assisting in Probate Court and Residents with Social Service Matters

St. Philip House was honored to have the Plainville Community Providers choose their offices for this important monthly meeting. Please contact us should you need more information concerning any of the services offered by St. Philip House or Chrysalis Center.

Representative from Chrysalis Center on behalf of St. Philip House attended the 110th Awards Dinner and Annual meeting of the Plainville Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, April 24th.

The Annual Dinner recognizes businesses and individuals who have supported both chamber and community activities, programs and events. 

This year we are proud to recognize the following people:

Beautification Award: U-Haul Moving & Storage of Pinnacle Rock

Business of the Year: Farmington Bank

Distinguished Community Leader Award: Shirley Osle, Assistant Town Manager

Distinguished Families in Business Award: Tabitha Wazorko Manafort, Principle, TWM Development and Quinn Wazorko Christopher, CEO, M&T Transmission

Distinguished Women in Business Award: Jane A. Carney, Painting & Decorating Inc.

Non-Profit Organization of the Year: The Rotary Club of Plainville

Chrysalis Center, on behalf of its St. Philip House program, was honored to support the event and those who were recognized.

2018 AIDS Awareness Day

St. Philip House employees and clients attended an  AIDS Awareness Day rally on the North Steps of the Capitol Wednesday, April 18th. The event was sponsored by AIDS Connecticut and was intended to raise awareness and to urge the General Assembly to maintain state spending for AIDS programs.

The rally was in support of stopping the cutting of funds by the legislature in relation to AIDS programs. According to theDepartment of Health, there are currently over 10,000 individuals living with the condition in Connecticut. 

Dr. Mathilde Krim (July 9, 1926 - January 15, 2018)
Mathilde Krim, who crusaded against the scourge of AIDS with appeals to conscience that raised funds and international awareness of a disease that has killed more than 39 million people worldwide, died on Monday at her home in Kings Point, N.Y. She was 91. Read More..

A Recent Client Success
Kenny (not his real name) has been successfully advocating for himself in recent months. He has stated this is a journey to find himself. He attends a large percentage of our scheduled activities which is great as he was one of the people that was initially vocal about not wanting Chrysalis to take over the program.  Read More...