Latinos Salud is all about building a stronger community. Now we’re reaching out to serve more of the community beyond our doors. Today, Latinos Salud announces the opening of its new Miami Beach location, funded in large part with a new grant from the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health.
Here in Wilton Manors, we develop peer leadership among gay Latinos, provide free HIV rapid testing six days a week, empower men living with HIV through linkage to free services, create special events for youth and for transgender persons, and offer one-on-one life coaching to all guys living with HIV.
“Latinos Salud is honored to have been selected for this grant opportunity to close the gap in awareness of HIV status amongst Latino gay men and their partners,” explained our Executive Director, Stephen Fallon, PhD. Our Director of Health Programs, Rafaelé Narváez, noted that the Miami expansion is a natural fit for our mission. “One-quarter of Broward County residents are Latino. In Miami-Dade, two-thirds of the populace are Latino,” said Narváez.
We’re following the service model that we adopted here in the Broward office several years ago, using a blend of in-office and community-based services. Our long-time staff member Johnathan Medina was promoted to Health Program Manager, and will serve as point person at the new location. “This first grant will support full office hours Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays. At other times, staff will be out in the field, taking services to gay Latinos and other men living with HIV throughout Miami-Dade County,” said Medina.
We could not have accepted this new Office of Minority Health grant without your support. The OMH program requires recipients to provide a partial cash match for each grant dollar they receive. We’ll be matching the new $159,000 grant with over $50,000 in other private grants and in-kind donations. The agency received a grant from The SMART Ride to assist with the matching requirement. “We are so grateful to The SMART Ride’s 10% Lifeline for supporting this new project. With these and other donated funds, we’ll be purchasing a second HIV testing mobile unit, specifically for use in the Miami region,” said Fallon.
Our Wilton Manors location is open on Wilton Drive, Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. The new location is at 555 Washington Avenue, Suite 235 on South Beach, and is now open Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 9:00 p.m. All free services are described on the website at latinossalud.org.
