Out Youth Austin today announced that the organization for LGBT youth has received a $25,000 grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation for Out Youth’s K.Y.S.S. (Knowing Your Status is Smart) program for HIV prevention, testing and counseling for young people, ages 12-19, in Central Texas.
The group received a $25,000 grant for the same program in March from the London-based Red Hot Organization. The Elton John AIDS Foundation is based in New York.
Out Youth Austin Executive Director Candice Towe called the latest grant “a tremendous Christmas present” for the organization.
Monrovia Van Hoose, Out Youth’s clinical director who oversees K.Y.S.S., said, “It’s critical that GLBTQ youth have regular access to confidential HIV testing and counseling. Staff, clinical interns and volunteers have received intensive training to provide testing and counseling for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.”
According to a 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control, 48 percent of Americans ages 13-24 who are infected with HIV are unaware of their HIV status. In 2008, CDC noted that American youth are at “persistent risk” of HIV infection, and that many are “not concerned” about the risks of infection.
Hello.
Thank you for mentioning us in your article on OutYouth — but Red Hot is not a London-based organization — we are based in New York City! (Beggar’s Banquet, which distributed the story, is London-based.)
I would be happy to send you more information about what we do. In the past year, Red Hot has donated over $1 million dollars from proceeds of its last album, “Dark Was the Night” to AIDS organizations around the globe.