While students in courses from Romantic Poetry to Behavioral Neurobiology grapple with midterms and lab reports, for those in one volunteer-oriented tutorial, instruction takes on a more human form. The students in SOC 412, led by Andrus Professor of Sociology Charles Lemert, work weekly with a non-profit organization called Positive Solutions, whose primary mission is to find dignified employment for residents living with HIV and AIDS.
Positive Solutions was started in 1998 by Norman Bishop, who is HIV-positive. After his own experience with HIV treatment and re-entry into the work force, he attended a seminar called “Employment, a treatment option that works” about creating businesses owned and operated by people who have HIV/AIDS.
“It got me thinking we could do something like this in our community,” Bishop said. “I thought there were a lot of other people in the same dilemma as myself: wanting to return to work and not having the financial freedom to just stop dealing with their AIDS medication.”
The tutorial meets weekly to discuss logistics and background on community organizing, the organization itself, and the situation of participants, according to Lemert. Students contribute an average of six hours each week, working in one of the three main areas Positive Solutions oversees: a computer training program, work program, and parenting class.
The organization’s work program, the Tower Project, named after Tower Laboratories, the company that offered the first commission, receives the highest involvement from students in the tutorial, according to Lemert. Participants assemble packages and carton them for Tower Laboratories. In 2001 and 2002, the organization sent out 67 W-2 forms and paid out approximately $110,000 to participating individuals, Bishop said.
“Working is most often an important form of human dignity, whether it is the kind of work done in a factory or at home taking care of children,” reads the organization’s website. “That used to be one of the first things taken away from people who discovered they were HIV-positive.”
Positive Solutions rarely turns down someone who is HIV-positive and looking for work. Bishop said the pool of interested individuals in the Middletown area matches almost evenly with the program’s capacity. People often come to the program under recommendation from case managers and drop-in centers, but word-of-mouth is steadily becoming a more reliable means of advertisement.
“Success stories can sell our programs more than me just running around talking to people,” Bishop said. “If we impact someone’s life, it means more and it goes further.”
While this is the first time the tutorial has been offered, many students volunteered with Positive Solutions consistently on their own during previous semesters.
“[There were] so many [interested students] that the tutorial turned out to be the only way I could organize,” Lemert said.
Wesleyan students have been involved with Positive Solutions almost since its conception, according to Bishop. Students have volunteered, run point-drives, and performed work-study for the organization for the last 4 – 5 years, and professors have been equally active. Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies Gina Ulysse is currently on the Positive Solutions Board of Directors, as is Professor Lemert, who is the chairperson.
Positive Solutions is funded partly by a Community Development Block Grant administered by the city of Middletown. Additional funding comes from the People’s Backroom, a gift shop in the Main Street Market that sells African art. The store has one paid employee who is a participant of Positive Solutions in addition to Bishop, who works voluntarily.
The gift shop opened two years ago, after three board members from Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda used connections to obtain enough African art to start up. One year and two months later, a gallery of African art opened next door as an extension of the gift shop. All proceeds go directly to Positive Solutions.
To raise additional funds, Positive Solutions will hold its Sixth Annual Fundraising and Awards Benefit on May 20. The benefit will be a buffet-style dinner with donations from twenty-one area restaurants, and will feature speakers, live entertainment, and an awards ceremony. The banquet’s theme will be “Our Community, Your Community.” Tickets are available to students for $35 at the Wesleyan box office.
For Yani Lopez ’05, whose focus in the tutorial has been planning the banquet fundraiser, working with Positive Solutions is a source of pleasure.
“The workload is never overwhelming because it is something you are pleased to do,” Lopez said. “We’re simply offering our services to people who need them and they are opening their home to us and trusting we will take good care of them.”
Bishop has high hopes for the organization’s future.
“I would love to see other Positive Solutions spring up all over the state,” Bishop said. “I’d like to help do that, after this one can stand on its own.”
Like Lopez, Professor Lemert doesn’t consider his work with the organization formal or obligatory service.
“I think it’s wrong to call it service. I think it’s part of life,” Lemert said. “It’s just part of my life, it’s as simple as that.”
Students interested in working with the organization should e-mail Professor Lemert at clemert@wesleyan.edu, or call the Positive Solutions office at (860) 704-8067.
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