By Peggy O'Farrell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati was founded in 1983, its clients and volunteers were mostly "gay white men and the people who loved them," says executive director Victoria Brooks.

Now most of AVOC's clients are people of color and the organization has added AIDS prevention and testing to its missions.

Caracole House was essentially a hospice when it opened in 1988. In its first 12 months of operation, it housed 12 clients. Today it operates long-term housing and case management services for men, women and families living with HIV and AIDS. In 2002, Caracole housed more than 250 men, women and children.

Focus is on help

The easiest way to understand how the AIDS epidemic has changed is to look at the evolving missions of the organizations that support people with the virus. Once charged with helping clients die with dignity, most AIDS service organizations now focus on helping their clients live with a chronic, often disabling, illness.

AVOC, based in Over-the-Rhine, is marking its 20th anniversary by reaching out more to Cincinnati's minorities.

AVOC's outreach workers already work extensively with agencies, churches and neighborhood leaders in the city's black neighborhoods. In the next several months, the organization will begin outreach activities in Cincinnati's growing Hispanic community.

"It used to be we didn't have to do much outreach," Brooks says. Gay white men knew what they were facing with HIV and AIDS and where they could turn for help.

Trust building under way

But minorities are often distrustful of the medical establishment, and it's in those communities that HIV is gaining a foothold.

AVOC is also increasing its outreach activities to youth, alarmed by the infection rate among teens and young adults who either don't know they're at risk for the disease or who feel the availability of medications to keep HIV from becoming AIDS offers them enough protection.

When Caracole opened in 1988, the organization rented a small house in Clifton Heights. Crowds were massed outside to protest the opening, panicked that Caracole's clients would somehow infect the surrounding neighborhood.

Today, Caracole owns two apartment houses and provides rental subsidies for dozens of individuals and families.

"In that first year, one of our clients was able to move out," says executive director Sue Butler. "At that time, most people came, they stayed a few weeks or a few months and they died."

'A stabilizing place'

Today, Caracole serves as "a stabilizing place" where clients can get back on their feet physically and financially, she says.

"We had very few vacancies in the early years, and then about 1992, we realized our clientele was changing," she says. "It wasn't just middle class gay white men who were ending up in the hospital and who had no one to turn to. We were seeing more younger women and often, they had children."

Much of Caracole's focus is on providing housing for families, rather than shared housing suitable for individuals. Caracole also offers case-management services, including referrals for medical care, job training, parenting classes and budgeting help, Butler says, and substance abuse treatment for clients battling addictions.

For more information on Caracole Inc., visit www.caracole.org or call 761-1480.

For information on AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati (AVOC), visit www.avoc.org or call 421-2437.