Outreach worker Zina Mitchell has lead the group in recruiting community participation as well as teaching current WWAV interns the most effective way of reaching individuals. The neighborhoods specified by the study are Treme, Holly Grove, and Central City. Beginning outreach during the first week in October, we have distributed over 120 flyers to individuals in grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and to those walking down sidewalks. General reactions have been inquisitive and friendly, asking more about what we’re doing and who we are. Conversations have allowed us to explain further the reason women need to be screened for HPV, regardless if they choose to do so through this study opportunity.

Recruiting participants has proved to be an interesting endeavor; learning how best to explain the risks involved in contracting HPV as well as why learning one’s own status could lead to preventing cervical cancer. The procedure of the study randomly assigns individuals to either a clinic visit or to use a home-testing kit. Among other forms required by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), we then present the individual with a questionnaire to verify eligibility (only those between the ages of 21-64 qualify) and a pre-test that will later be compared to the post-test. For those who are assigned to the clinic, WWAV provides either bus or street car tokens or a gas card—depending on the need of the client—and then we schedule an appointment.

For those assigned to the home-testing kit, the process is a bit more involved. We have pre-made kits for the women, including instructions on how to do the test. She then inserts the provided tampon for 2 hours, removes it and places it in the given tube and plastic bag, then places the pre-paid box in the mail, destination LSU Health Sciences.

Although we are in the beginning stages of this project, we anticipate a positive response from the communities participating. The mentality behind this study, the convenience and accessibility of testing for HPV at home, explains our involvement and support of the project. The clients that we work and interact with could only benefit from an easy method allowing them to determine their own HPV status when considering the many obstacles involved in preventing them from accessing services at an OB/GYN clinic; money, child care, and transportation being just a few of the deterrents.

Limited access to care especially in the realm of health services is a known reality for the individuals and families we serve. The idea of being able to assess one’s own health status at home opens a world of possibilities and allows for the individual to reclaim his or her own power; the power of autonomy. Removing stigma as it relates to health care opens the door to myriad opportunities for individuals to protect their own bodies from disease and to manage a life-style that will lead them to a long and happy life. At-home testing for HPV will do just that.

Do you or someone you know have a Crimes Against Nature by solicitation conviction? The law has changed and you may no longer be required to register as a sex offender.

WWAV and Orleans Public Defenders are hosting 3 upcoming information sessions on how individuals can file a Motion in court to get off of the sex offender registry permanently.

• Monday, Oct 8: 11am, 7th Ward Neighborhood Center, 1910 Urquhart Street
• Monday, Oct 15: 6pm, 7th Ward Neighborhood Center, 1910 Urquhart Street
• Thursday, Oct 25: 11am, 2601 Tulane Ave, 6th Floor, OPD Conference Room

Women With A Vision’s Executive Director, Deon Haywood, joined sex worker advocates from around the World to discuss a universal problem; policies and legislation that discriminate and criminalize sex workers. The panelist explained the faults of these policies and offered recommendations for change. The panel represented regions of  Africa, Latin America, the Carribean, United States and Western Europe. Check out other amazing panels in the International Aids Conference at http://globalhealth.kff.org/AIDS2012.

Twice a month WWAV hosts story circles—a community-based storytelling session. Our staff, interns and participants gather around in a circle to tell stories, share our lived experiences, and find a collective voice.  WWAV’s participants are overwhelmingly low-income women and transgender women of color, a number of whom are involved in the street-based economies. Story circles thus achieve the important task of centering the voices of people who are too often made invisible in our society. They not only engender a sense of community and awareness, but they also promote healing and collective action.

Timid and a little quirky, afraid that I wouldn’t gain the acceptance of our participants, I did very little talking in the first few story circles.  I had come to WWAV as a student intern from University of New Orleans.  And while my coursework in the sociology of gender had impassioned me, serving as the impetus for my politicization as a young Latina woman living in the South, there was also a gap between what I had been taught in the classroom and what I was now learning in our story circles.  My courses at school had given me a theoretical understanding of the ways in which systems of race, gender, class, and sexuality intersect to create social inequality.  But story circles lent a face and a voice to the people who live under the pressure of those inequalities.  I admire our participants’ resilience, and I admire the generosity with which they shared their lives with me.

Eventually, my timidity washed away, allowing me reciprocate the same generosity our participants had shown me in sharing their stories. As I developed relationships with our participants, they came to call me ‘White Chocolate.’  Not only is this a delicious nickname, but I felt it validated my place in WWAV. That nickname is a reminder of my personal trajectory at WWAV—from a reserved to a more confident person with a deep social justice commitment.

Perhaps that’s why I so vividly remember my incredulous reaction when I got Deon’s message that “our office was torched.”  Torched?  As a non-native English speaker, I had initially thought:  perhaps there is another definition of the word “torched” that eludes me.  Because “torched” certainly couldn’t mean that our office had been set on fire.  My denial was quickly punctured as our photos and videos began to circulate on the web.

In the month since fire, all of us have experienced many ups and downs.  WWAV has not only been a safe haven, but it has also been a place of growth for all us.  The violence of this attack is an ever-present reminder that the personal is indeed political.  As we continue our rebuilding process, this awareness is what keeps all of us going.  Someone tried to stamp us out by destroying the materials we use to do our work, but our work—our vision—goes so much deeper than that.  It is inside all of us who are part of the WWAV family.  That’s something that can’t be burned down.

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Please join us at at Twelve Mile Limit, 500 S. Telemachus.  Doors open at 7pm.

A $5 recommended donation will also include a raffle ticket, and $1 from every drink sold during the event will be donated to the cause. A live DJ will also be on hand.

If you cannot attend but would still like to help, and for more information about WWAV, please visit our website, http://wwav-no.org/.

Within hours of the arson attack on our office, AIDS United, the Drug Policy Alliance, Broadway Cares, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Palette Fund and the Summit Foundation all reached out to us to pledge emergency funds to see us through this crisis.  We know how rare this kind of support is, and count ourselves truly blessed to be in struggle with such an incredible community of allies.  Together we are pressing forward towards the world our women envision:  a world without AIDS, a world free from the criminalization of drugs and drug users, a world affirming of LGBT people’s health and wellbeing, and a world where all of us, young and old, can grow up to realize our hopes and dreams.