Through GMHC’s Specialty Programs Department, clients can access nourishing food, jobs, healthcare, wellness activities – and, most of all, community and hope. The impact is huge: GMHC served over 1,000 clients through these programs last year.
When my coworker told me that we had the opportunity to go to the 2025 Pines Party on Fire Island, I jumped at it without hesitation. I knew bits and pieces of GMHC’s history there, but it wasn’t until I arrived on the island that Friday morning in early August that I truly began to feel the weight of our legacy.
We are thrilled that Chet Balram, LCSW, the Managing Director of GMHC’s Mental Health and Substance Use Services, has been named a 2025 Health Care Hero by Schneps Media for the transformative growth of the department under his leadership.
GMHC’s Meals Program has already served over 3,000 hot, nutritious lunches to clients since expanding lunch service to four days per week in mid-November and switching from a caterer to an in-house kitchen staff.
At a time when over half the people living with HIV are aged 50 and above, GMHC’s ACRIA Centers for HIV and Aging are needed more than ever. Older adults living with HIV face unique circumstances, yet the healthcare providers and community groups that serve them often do not know much about their issues, said ACRIA Centers at GMHC Director Christopher Culp.
GMHC has dramatically expanded its mental health and substance use services since Chet Balram, Managing Director for Mental Health and Substance Use, and his colleague Keila Morales, Managing Director of Clinic Operations, joined the agency three years ago with that mandate.
For Women’s History Month, we are spotlighting the services that GMHC provides specifically for women, no matter their HIV status.
In welcome news to clients, GMHC has reopened our dining room for lunch twice a week, after having to suspend this beloved service due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation has grown rapidly since June, when the agency started serving lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Landing a job can be a struggle for our clients living with HIV, when they’ve been out of the workforce for a while. GMHC’s Workforce
“Housing is the top need reported by incoming clients and a pressing need for our long-term survivors.” Kishani C. Moreno As New York City experiences