Divinah Bailey – Founder
Watchful Eye

COMMEMORATING OUR 3-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
OF PUTTING THE COMMUNITY FIRST

A Message from the Founder

This year, as we recognize the third anniversary since the Watchful Eye first opened its doors in April, 2009, I am humbled by the never-ending show of support we have received from the community and leadership in our fight to end HIV/AIDS in our communities. From the blacktop covered streets of New York City to the marbled halls of Capital Hill, our leaders and community volunteers stood up, often when no one else did, to serve as relevant voices in our fight against HIV/AIDS. And for that I wanted to take this opportunity to say, thank you!

When we first opened our street-level doors three years ago our mandate was simple, to put the community first in everything we do. This simple mantra was our north star. It guided us as we led a successful recruitment plan that collaborated with local service providers, civic leaders, countless volunteers and stakeholders and the New York City Dept. Health and Mental Hygiene, to become active Watchful Eye partners. These important partnerships enabled us to effectively conduct outreach to over 20,000 Brooklyn residents and distribute more than 30,000 condoms and educational materials in hopes of changing the disproportionately high rate of infection in the community.

Recognizing that HIV has directly impacted the lives of over 100,000 New Yorkers, with Brooklyn accounting for 26,000 of those cases, our efforts led to the first Brooklyn-based door-to-door HIV testing campaign in five high-risk areas. Our efforts were recognized as we received the 2009 Humanitarian Award from the Black, Asian, and Latino Legislative Caucus. By putting the community first, our work was never created or presented in a vacuum. Our doors are always open, our accomplishments are never our own, but the communities.

We are humbled by the fact that we stand on the shoulders of giants who are veterans in the fight to save and reclaim our lives from this devastating epidemic. Similarly, we are honored to partner with the Brooklyn Linkage to Care Coalition, whose members include the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, Brooklyn AIDS Task Force, Community Health Network, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, Brooklyn HIV Care Network, Exponents, AfterHours Project, Project Street Beat, the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, New York City AIDS Housing Network, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Turning Point.

Our community partnerships were a critical component of the success of our programs. By working with community based organizations such as Black Veterans for Social Justice and the New York City Faith in Action Coalition, a New York City partnership of individuals including Oliver W. Martin III, Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, faith organizations, and health and secular organization representatives, we stayed true to our mandate. We shared a common goal, to reduce and eliminate HIV and AIDS in New York City.

By talking with clergy, shop owners, legislators, school principals, physicians, parents and a wide variety of individuals and institutions that comprise our communities, we were able to create and implement the Red Ribbon Revitalization Campaign. The Campaign, an ongoing initiative to encourage HIV testing, can be seen on 8’X3’ banners that hang from flag poles in Brooklyn areas hardest hit by HIV/AIDS including Brownsville/East New York, Coney Island, Flatbush/East Flatbush, Red Hook and Fort Greene.

Thanks to community involvement and support, over the past three years our Testing Outreach and Prevention (T.O.P.) Initiative has reached over 8,000 people, with over 850 being tested for HIV as a result. T.O.P. served as a catalyst to develop and execute community actions and programmatic events that provide testing, prevention and education services that reduce stigma and enhance risk reduction throughout the borough of Brooklyn and the City of New York. This year we are proud to announce the launch of our HIV/AIDS “Water to Water” testing campaign that spans from Williamsburg to Coney Island. The testing campaign was kicked off on Thursday, March 22nd with our 1st Annual Testers Summit.

I know that I am not a lone voice when I say that our efforts would not have been possible had it not been for scores of volunteers and leaders with whom we stood side-by-side. They were there to guide us. Leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Dr. Robert Waterman, Bishop Gerald Seabrooks and Elder Stacy Latimer, who worked with countless churches to dispel myths about the epidemic through their ongoing inspirational messages that helped to shine a bright light under the bed to prove that HIV/AIDS is not the boogeyman. Our elected policy makers like Senator John Sampson Senator Eric Adams and Senator Kevin Parker who proudly wore their Watchful Eye pins as they went about their daily decision making responsibilities as elected officials.

It cannot be mentioned enough that our work was accomplished through partnerships and by listening to the community and talking with leadership to receive our charge and listen to best practices. We worked with the African American Clergy and Elected Officials Coalition (AACEO), City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and New York State Senator Tom Duane who shared our passion to save our communities and were instrumental in helping to raise the level of conversation around the epidemic. They opened the doors of City Hall
to listen to our concerns and offer remedy. Our college presidents including William Pollard, president of our very own Medgar Evers College, which now holds the distinct honor of being the first university in the history of the epidemic to fly an HIV/AIDS awareness banner in front of its campus, stood side by side with us to spread the word across college campuses.

Knowing that our children are the future, we partnered with the UniverSoul Circus to talk with audiences both young and old to get the word out about HIV and AIDS. The UniverSoul Circus truly understands the value and impact of “edutainment” as year after year they have worked with us, and local mobile testing units, to provide onsite testing, and provided leaders with an opportunity to stand center ring and address our communities about protecting ourselves. This effort led to 15,000 individuals getting tested for HIV at Circus events. Now if that’s not a textbook example of putting community first, then I don’t know what is.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Brooklyn’s very own Councilman Al Vann, and Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Larry Seabrook, Congressman Ed Towns, Tracie Gardner, Director of Wish NY, the Honorable Darryl C. Towns, Councilwomen Darlene Mealy and Letitia James, Dr. Pernessa Seele, Dr. Monica Sweeney, Honorable Yvonne Graham, Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Dr. Dexter McKenzie, Police Chief Gerald Nelson of Brooklyn North and the Community Affairs Division, and so many countless others who guided our work and fine tuned our efforts so we could effectively mobilize our community to save lives.

Most importantly, I want to say a special heartfelt thank you to all of you, the community, who have embraced our effects with open arms and have provided us time and time again with counsel, and opportunities to network and raise the level of awareness about HIV/AIDS.

During the coming years, with your continued help, we will march even stronger in number in the battle to save our communities, to stay true to our mission to put community first! We will continue our efforts to build a community level infrastructure through community mobilization and outreach that allows for the development of new and innovative ways to fight HIV/AIDS.

Family, as we move into year four, we will work even harder to highlight the efforts of our young leadership. We will introduce you to a new cadre of innovative thinkers, creative visionaries, who are homegrown, and will proudly carry the mantle of victory against HIV/AIDS. Their efforts will continue to focus on developing programs and activities that strengthen collaborative projects to conduct and sustain HIV prevention initiatives. They will use all of the resources we now have at our fingertips to usher in a new era of collaboration and partnership that takes advantage of social media to increase the level of conversation around the epidemic. I know that we can count on you to continue to work with them, to allow them to stand on your shoulders, to encourage everyone one we reach to Get Tested, Know Your Status, Get Involved, and keep the community first in all that wedo!

“It is no secret a partnership with another entity increases ones chances of achieving a desired goal”

Until There’s a Cure…Keeping a Watchful Eye...

On Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:30am, The Rev. Al Sharpton founder of the National Action Network provided a dynamic keynote address at a unique gathering of over 100 clergy, elected officials and other leaders who took part in a HIV/AIDS forum at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. This Clergy and Leadership breakfast entitled - Changing the Course of HIV 1 Black Life at a Time, was a partnership between the college and Watchful Eye. The forum which was held in commemoration of this year's National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (February 7th) was co-sponsored by the African American Clergy and Elected Officials Coalition and designed to re-energize the African American leadership in the fight against HIV and AIDS.