South Side Help Center(SSHC) and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will salute 20 Gay & Same Gender Loving men for their advocacy and promotion of the overall health and well-being of gay men and HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and treatment during its first annual “20/20 Salute to 20 Gay & Chicago Same Gender Loving Men with Vision

This event will be free. In 2008 the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) launched this observance day to recognize the disproportionate impact of the epidemic on gay men.

The event will be held Tuesday, September 27, 2016 TIME: 8 – 10 p.m. at The Promontory in Hyde Park, 5311 South Lake Park.

Confirmed honorees to date include:

Erik Glenn, Executive Director, Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus

Keith Green, Community advocate, educator, researcher and spoken word artist

Arick Buckles, Illinois Alliance for Sound AIDS Policy

John Sykes, MSW, LCSW, Psychotherapist, According To Sykes, LLC

Sherman Bryant, Co-Chair, Chicago Black Treatment Advocates Network

Art Simms, “Chat Daddy” Host & Executive Producer of “Real Talk”, WVON

Ben Montgomery, Retired U.S. Congressional Staffer

Bruce C. Edwards, M.A. Coordinator Consumer Engagement, HIV Chicago Department of Public Health, STI/HIV Division

Sanford E. Gaylord, ŽRegional Resource Consultant, Region V at ICF International / U.S. Department of Health and Human Service

Charles Nelson, South Side Help Center, MSM Project Director

Serette B. King, CDC Project Manager at Howard Brown Health Center

Louis O. Spraggins, Communicable Disease Control Investigator 2, Thresholds

About South Side Help Center

For nearly 30 years, South Side Help Center has provided critical services for HIV-positive individuals. Initially founded in 1987 with the goal of educating the African-American religious community so it could be sensitive to the needs of people dying from HIV/AIDS, SSHC’s services have evolved beyond HIV prevention to include direct care services and a comprehensive range of Youth and Capacity Building programs that serve minorities at greatest risk. According to the Healthy Chicago STI/HIV Surveillance Report, Fall 2011, Fig. 2., P #8, Chicago’s South Side has a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. SSHC connects its HIV-positive clients to free medical services through its recent affiliation with AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and is expanding its capacity to provide additional critical and much-needed services to the community at large.