Yolanda Jones stays more than busy these days, doing double duty as CEO of AIN in Dallas, and interim CEO of AIDS Outreach Center in Fort Worth.
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Yolanda Jones replaced Steven Pace, who retired about a year-and-a-half ago, as CEO of AIN, formerly known as AIDS Interfaith Network. As of Aug. 1, she is also interim CEO of Fort Worth’s largest HIV agency, AIDS Outreach Center.
The connection is that both AIN and AOC have medical facilities run by AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Jones said she promised her services to Fort Worth’s AHF affiliate for six months, but a search for a permanent executive director has yet to commence.
While both are HIV/AIDS agencies, the two organizations focus on different needs. AIN may be best known for the Daire Center, which serves breakfast and lunch to clients and is a respite facility. The agency also distributes public transportation passes and offers translation services.
AOC offers insurance assistance, housing options, transportation and dental services as well as a nutrition center and a food pantry. Both agencies offer case management.
Possibly no one is more qualified to oversee this wide array of services than Jones. For the five years prior to joining AIN, she was chief operating officer for AIDS Services Dallas, which specializes in housing. She has chaired the Allocations Committee for the Ryan White Planning Council for Dallas area, and she co-chaired the care coordination committee.
Among her other previous positions was a stint at AIDS Foundation Houston where she coordinated support services for women, infants and children affected by HIV.
“I’ve done everything,” Jones said. “Testing. Case manager. Outreach. Worked at Camp Hope for kids prenatally infected with HIV. Food pantry. Every aspect of that space, I’ve done.”
And she’d been active in HIV outreach work since college in Houston. She said she was very active in a variety of social organizations in college. An AIDS organization was looking for someone to plan activities to draw people to events and get tested.
“At the time, I didn’t know women could get AIDS,” Jones said. “I did know numbers were increasing among Black and brown people.”
The CEO of AIDS Foundation Houston explained to her just why she was needed, and Jones quickly found that her interest turned into her passion.
In her current position with AIN, Jones says she’s happy with the current Stemmons Freeway and Medical District Drive campus and what it has become since the addition of the AHF clinic and pharmacy.
“We’re a comprehensive one-stop shop,” she said.
With the clinic and pharmacy, getting clients into care and getting them the medications they need is much easier than it was before. Previously, AIN provided transportation to Amelia Court, Parkland Hospital’s HIV clinic. Now they offer medical care in the same suite of offices.
Still, keeping some of those clients in care can be difficult. Many are homeless.
“We get clients other agencies bar from services for behavior,” she said. “If a client is a little drunk, we make sure they get something to eat.”
Still, Jones said, they’ve only had to call for police assistance once since she’s been at AIN.
Working in Fort Worth two days a week, in Dallas two days a week and from home once a week has Jones stretched thin, but there are still a few ideas more she has for expanding services at AIN.
First, she said, she would like to create events for women. “Women often don’t get diagnosed until they’re pregnant,” she said, noting that even when women get tested for STIs, doctors often omit an HIV test.
Jones said she would also like to see AIN offer counseling. But she’s not talking about what Resource Center or Legacy offers with formal appointments. She’d like to have a counselor available that clients can get to know and, when they stop by for a meal or to pick up bus passes, might drop in to discuss something going on in their life or an issue that’s come up.
“AIN does really well treating clients with dignity and respect,” Jones said. “We meet you where you are. I’ve seen clients who, after a short time here, have said, ‘I’m ready to be housed.’
“One client started by coming to take a nap at the Daire Center. Case management helped him get a job and now he has an apartment with a roommate.”
Between breakfast and lunch, the Daire Center offers a variety of programs. Jones said they listen to their clients. They offered GED preparation classes, but there was little interest because the clients didn’t see any use having a diploma. But when they offered classes to teach computer skills, the interest level was much higher.
Jones explained that when you go to an agency like the unemployment office, no one is providing direct help. “You have to know how to use a computer,” she said.
Jones said she had a couple of other ideas of services she’s like to offer but can’t for a variety of reasons including the cost of insurance and liability. “Because I serve so many unhoused, I wish I had shower and laundry facilities,” she said. “And a food pantry would be good for my clients.”
But again, she has in mind something other than what Resource Center already offers.
Thinking of her unhoused clients, her pantry would offer prepared meals, including meals that didn’t need to be reheated.
And, because she’s not busy enough running two HIV agencies, Jones is also a board member of Traffic 911, which focuses on youth who have been trafficked. The organization provides supportive services that are available 24 hours a day and offers case management, rescue, therapy and rehab and works with parents as well as with the youth.
How does she find the time to devote to that organization while running two major HIV organizations? How can she not when she’s helping to save more lives? n