The Beneficiaries: 

The job of the beneficiary committee is to review the efficiency to service ratio in donor dollar use.  Our goal is to make sure every dollar you and your friends donate does not go to pay for payroll, overhead or indirect expenses.  The Foundation has a track record of scrutinizing each organization for compliance, deliverability of a program, fiscal responsibility, need and audit compliance.  In this way we can be assured that every penny donated is used for only direct service of HIV/AIDS clients and for Prevention & Education programs.

Over 17 HIV/AIDS Agencies have benefited from LifeRide.

The following programs have been selected for 2008:

Shanti OC - Sea of Hearts

Shanti Orange County, the Agency with the Caring Heart provides life-enhancing services and emotional support to individuals living with HIV and AIDS.

Shanti has been providing services and programs throughout Orange County for the past 21 years.  They include Social Service Case Management – a non-medical model, Mental Health - a psychotherapeutic model of individual and group therapy, Home Delivered Meals and Education and Outreach through ongoing seminars and workshops. 

Our community outreach targets educating high school and college students about HIV and AIDS. Trained community volunteers and Shanti clients serve as speakers in health education classes and health fairs, with the goal of recruiting them to work on behalf of Shanti Orange County. We have a very active under-graduate internship program that welcomes college youth to learn about HIV and AIDS through direct services. 

Shanti’s annual Sea of Hearts is an initiative designed to alert and inform the greater community of the prevalence of HIV disease in our neighborhoods. Shanti  is also a member of the Laguna Beach HIV Advisory Committee of the City of Laguna Beach and we work closely with the Peer Counseling Group within Laguna Beach High School to educate, and promote safety issues surrounding HIV disease.

Spot U.org - Now that You Know

Spot-U.org is a new HIV Awareness & Prevention directed at youth involvement with the help of Charter Communications, Yahoo Community Foundation, and several HIV agency collaborative partners.  The "Now that You Know" campaign launches May 19, 2008 through National HIV Testing Day June 27, 2008 to involve kids by "spotting" them in "Getting the Facts", "Getting Tested" and "Doing Something".

The Spot-U.org web site goes live in May with a LA county-wide PSA campaign, posters, media cards and freebies to entice the youth into seeking HIV testing, getting involved with volunteer service with HIV agencies and getting the facts on HIV.  Use of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook will be heavily emphasized to engage the most at risk group, age 15 to 24.

Spot-U includes use of technology to engage the youth, guerilla-style marketing to get their attention and give-a-ways to create a grassroots participation with the youth-driven program.  This age group will be able to post their stories of their SPOT-U experiences on the web site to get other peers to engage in the HIV dialogue.  Spot-U is a new innovative outreach program funded solely by donations and private foundation grants to reach the at-risk age group.

LA Center’s Jeff Griffith Youth Center - Street Smart HIV Education and Prevention Program

On any given day or night there are an 6,000 to 7,000 runaway and homeless young persons, up to 24 years old, living on the streets of Los Angeles.  It is estimated that 20% to 40% of these homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning (LGBTQ). Nationwide one in four young persons who come out to their parents are asked to leave home. They come here to escape and in search of a better life. However, many do not have the resources and skills to succeed and often find themselves on the streets and in need of supportive services. Once on the streets these are quickly exposed to drug use, survival sex and petty crime.

A key component to the youth services is the Street Smart HIV Education and Prevention Program. The behaviors that put these young people at risk for HIV include engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse, multiple sex partners as well as non-injecting drug use. The program provides health information and resources to support young people in making healthy behavior choices, as well as to link them to HIV testing and treatment and other needed services at LAGLC and our community service partners. Individual Counseling Sessions include a risk assessment, a discussion of the young person’s behavior, education on risk reduction behavior and skill building activities and behavior change activities. Group Level Interventions help young people understand their behavior, attitudes and beliefs and how these relate to their risk for HIV infection. Each group also takes part in a field trip to a community-based service organization that provides services for runaway and homeless youth.  This provides participants with the opportunity to learn how to access the critical services they need in order to live a healthy and more stable life.