THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110540
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 102 lines
The war against AIDS is being fought along the front lines in South Hampton Roads' cities, neighborhood by neighborhood. And its latest offensive is being pressed by the Urban League of Hampton Roads, which is based in Norfolk.
The group's attack is a stepped-up -HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention project that targets specific neighborhoods considered at higher risk of AIDS.
One recent encounter:
In a Norfolk neighborhood, a thirtysomething woman waits for change at the side door of an ice cream truck. Charles Peek, one of the Urban League staffers, walks over and offers her a free condom.
At first, the woman is reluctant to accept. She does a backward two-step, then cautiously extends an open palm, her eyes darting about suspiciously.
Moments later, two youths don't hesitate a second. They hurriedly jam Peek's freebies into their jeans' pockets, then head down the street.
Peek, a sort of Pied Piper of the at-risk set, has doled out hundreds of condoms, a precious commodity to some folks in Hampton Roads neighborhoods. Between July 1 and Sept. 30, he and 13 other street outreach workers gave away 6,050 latex prophylactics in Norfolk and Portsmouth.
Last week, he and the other staffers extended their giveaway into areas of Virginia Beach and Suffolk. Next, they'll hit Chesapeake.
This new push for HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention is the work of the Urban League's new executive director, Frank Stubbs III, a 38-year-old Chesapeake attorney with a vision that includes expanding the league's job, education and health programs.
Stubbs cites July-through-September statistics from his outreach workers:
Contacts made in Norfolk: 3,266 African-American males, 4,640 African-American females, 290 caucasian males, 189 caucasian females, 69 other males and 37 other females.
Contacts made in Portsmouth: 4,745 African-American males, 3,850 African-American females, 215 caucasian males, 242 caucasian females, 85 other males and 108 other females.
A total of 17,161 pieces of -HIV/AIDS literature were distributed. .
Infection with the deadly virus is on the rise in Hampton Roads and nationwide.
At-risk neighborhoods the league focuses on include those with homosexual populations, as well as low-income residents, Peek said.
White and middle-class neighbors also are targeted by outreach workers.
Working with the social services and health departments of the four cities to identify at-risk areas, the Urban League uses federal, state and private money to spread its message about how the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, is passed from one person to another.
Peek moves on to his next encounter.
Five women in the Roberts Village public housing neighborhood in Norfolk huddle in a front yard talking and laughing. They glance up skeptically as Peek approaches. He introduces himself, then offers his AIDS prevention pamphlets and condoms.
A woman with a sleeping baby stretched out on her lap tells Peek, ``Yeah, I have a 15-year-old son that's sexually active.'' She then pockets the condoms and pamphlet.
Peek, who's 39 and a former Norfolk public housing resident, expresses no surprise that he encounters so many male teenagers this recent midweek afternoon. He says apathy has led them to drop out of school.
At the public housing's rental office, Peek leaves behind a new batch of literature. Big, black letters on bright-yellow paper warn ``all Roberts Village residents'' that ``children are being paid by drug dealers and users to pick up dirty (used) needles to be used again. . . . You can be infected with the HIV (AIDS) virus or the hepatitis B virus.''
The warning is printed by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
According to Katrina Cross, health coordinator for the program, the Urban League's revitalized health project will soon include testing for hypertension, heart disease, lead poisoning and hepatitis, as well as HIV/AIDS.
Welfare reform will mean many more will need services,'' Peek says while driving through the Downtown Tunnel to Portsmouth. ``They have not talked about those who can't find jobs. What has not been guaranteed is help getting jobs.''
Peek parks his car on a street in the privately owned Southside Gardens Apartments complex. He is headed for Bolden's Grocery and Meat store, which is a block away. He stops at a street corner to give some condoms to a woman who he says is probably ``a woman of the night.''
He hands some literature to two male teens perched on a fence nearby.
``Yo, we ain't got no condoms,'' one admonishes as Peek starts to cross the street.
``No more,'' he calls back over his shoulder. ``Store over there passes them out.''
But inside, the store's 72-year-old owner, William Bolden, is quick to tell Peek that he's out of the free prophylactics.
A frown crosses Bolden's face as Peek explains that he'll have to stop back because he has been cleaned out today.
``Especially young people'' ask him for the condoms, Bolden says. He'll pass out 60 or 70 between Peek's weekly visits, giving them to ``the ones I know need 'em.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Charles Peek, second from right, hands out AIDS-awareness health
pamphlets to residents of a Portsmouth housing project.
Graphic
HIV cases reported in Hampton Roads
[For complete copy, see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: AIDS CONDOM URBAN LEAGUE OF HAMPTON ROADS by CNB