Agency Profile

Mission Statement

The mission of Friends For Life is to provide critical services, basic needs, and outreach programs that empower those affected by HIV/AIDS to optimize their longevity and quality of life. Our comprehensive, client-centered approach includes education, housing, food, and healthy life skills. We strive to enlighten the Mid-South community in a manner that heightens awareness, facilitates acceptance, and promotes prevention.

What Is Friends For Life Corporation?

Friends For Life Corporation (FFL), the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in the Mid-South, has a history that spans 25 years, dating back to 1985. As with the majority of community based AIDS service organizations across the nation, Friends For Life had a grassroots beginning with services that focused primarily on Caucasian gay men as these were the individuals at the time most affected by HIV/AIDS. A group of friends whose loved ones were dying from complication associated with HIV/AIDS formed the Aid To End AIDS Committee in 1985, later to become Friends For Life. Friends For Life merged with a separate nonprofit agency, Aloysius Home, in 1999, thus significantly expanding it services to include permanent and supportive housing.

The services provided by Friends For Life have evolved through the years as have the populations seeking assistance from the organization. Over the past ten years, the number of African Americans served by the agency has increased to being a total of 87% of those assisted, with minority women making up 43% of all clients. In addition, the life expectancy of persons living with HIV/AIDS has dramatically increased over the past ten years due to new medications. Attending to the fact that the majority of the persons served by the agency live in poverty and face multiple issues, the current programs offered by Friends For Life have been designed not only to address issues relating to managing the disease, but also to providing life skills development necessary for clients to experience lives of high quality. Program components at Friends For Life include helping clients increase their daily living skills, as well as literacy and vocational skills to provide them with opportunities that challenge them to move from a life often characterized as being a ‘victim’ to a life over which they take control and accept 100% responsibility for their quality and longevity of life.

Friends For Life is viewed as the ‘point of entry’ into the HIV/AIDS service delivery system and many persons either new to the system or those who have been ‘out of care’ come to FFL even before they seek medical treatment. The fact that many persons come to FFL even when they may not be adherent with their medical treatment makes the agency and its services a vital link to the ongoing health of each person living with HIV/AIDS in the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area.

From July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, Friends For Life served 1,352 persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Of this number, 798 (59%) were men and 547 (41%) were women. The Nancy Fletcher Food Pantry served over 300 children who lived with an adult with HIV/AIDS. African Americans made up 88% (1,184) of the clients served while 11 % (136) were Caucasian and less than 1% (9) were Hispanic. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of persons served lived equal to or below the federal poverty line with 11% living at 101-200% of the federal poverty line.

Friends For Life provides a comprehensive continuum of prevention and supportive services regarding HIV/AIDS under two major divisions; Aloysius Home Housing Services and the Wellness Program. The Housing Services include permanent supportive housing for persons with HIV/AIDS who are formerly homeless in an agency-owned apartment building that has fifteen (15) one-bedroom apartments and one (1) two-bedroom apartment. A Tenant Based Rental Assistance program provides additional housing for low-income families and individuals in 56 rent-subsidized apartments owned by private landlords in Shelby, Fayette, Tipton counties in Tennessee, Crittenden county in Arkansas and DeSoto, Tunica, Tate and Marshall counties in Mississippi. Other housing assistance includes short-term rental and utility assistance provided to persons with HIV/AIDS in DeSoto, Marshall, Tate and Tunica counties in Mississippi and Crittenden County in Arkansas. Intensive case management and other supportive services are provided to residents of all housing programs of the agency.

Friends For Life’s Wellness Program encompasses the remainder of the supportive services provided by the agency. Nutritional services include the Nancy Fletcher Food Pantry, the second largest food pantry (14-16 tons monthly) in the Memphis Food Bank’s 32-county system, and Feast For Friends, a twice-monthly congregate meal program conducted at an area church.

The Positive Living Center ( PLC) provides a holistic approach to the management of HIV, providing supportive services designed to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of persons with HIV/AIDS. Therapeutic services provided at the PLC have included acupuncture, massage therapy, meditation, Reiki, yoga classes, aroma therapy and creative writing. To assist in meeting client’s spiritual needs, the PLC has developed relationships with several churches that provide pastoral counseling and a weekly spiritual support group.

The popular meditation room includes a large aquarium, videos of relaxing scenes such as waterfalls and nature, soothing scents, colors and music, along with a state-of- the art automated massage chair. Other services of the PLC include an extensive resource library of periodicals, pamphlets, magazines, books, and tapes in English and Spanish. The ‘living room’ atmosphere of couches, rugs and plants encourages clients to defeat isolation by socializing in the PLC, playing games, watching movies, and conducting internet research on one of the computers. Many persons spend their entire day at the agency headquarters attending Wellness University classes and socializing in the Positive Living Center.

The Wellness University is a community-wide program that began as an HIV education and adherence program and has grown to include daily living skills training, literacy and GED classes, economic and financial empowerment training, and referral to vocational training. With the participation of 45 social service agencies, medical providers and pharmaceutical companies, the Wellness University has become an important and successful adherence-focused program in the community. Some of the partners in the program include St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The Regional Medical Center’s Adult Special Care Center, University of Tennessee (UT) School of Allied Health Sciences, UT School of Social Work, and Hope House.

Other services provided by Friends For Life include free HIV testing, peer-based empowerment groups, adherence case management, and a Leadership Development Program. A collaborative program with the Regional Medical Center’s Adult Special Care Center places medical case manager onsite to help clients schedule medical appointments to ensure treatment adherence. A special partnership with the national pharmacy, Walgreens, provides a licensed pharmacist onsite three days per week to counsel clients about their medications and teach adherence classes in the Wellness University.

HIV prevention has been one of the major services provided by Friends For Life since the agency began in 1985. Outreach in the streets, bars, parks, health fairs and at churches and community centers is conducted along with condom distribution and flyers about safer sex, and an AIDS Hotline provides factual information about the disease to callers. Friends For Life has maintained a Prevention For Positives program since 2002 with services including individual and group risk reduction counseling, skills building sessions, a support group and the Coffee Shop socialization activity. Free HIV testing is provided two days per week at the agency

History of Friends For Life

Read an extensive history of Friends For Life and learn about the many persons who have been influential in keeping the organization strong and meeting the needs of persons affected by HIV/AIDS.

Among Friends: The 20 Year History of Friends For Life (Adobe PDF)