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Care4Me: More than a catchy name for HIV/AIDS advocacy

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December 16, 2024
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By Alice Thomas-Tisdale

JA Publisher Emerita

If you ask CARE4ME director Juanita Davis what day is World AIDS Day, she’d most likely respond “every day” with emphasis on Dec. 1, the date set aside each year to bring awareness and new information on the preventable disease. However, with new therapies on the market, the precursor to AIDS, HIV, is no longer a death sentence although it does require managed care to live a relatively normal lifestyle.  

Davis joined a number of other HIV advocates December 2, 2024, at the Jackson Medical Mall to openly discuss Mississippi’s commitment in realizing the program theme: “Collective Action to Sustain & Accelerate HIV Progress”. Presenter Rocky Rajinder Khanna from the Mississippi State Department of Health, said his definition of accelerate is efficiency. “Mississippi has the seventh highest HIV rate in the nation; we’re also third in syphilis cases,” he said, adding, it’s important to go where the need is the greatest, i.e., hosting well organized HIV awareness events on college campuses. Currently, Hinds, Harrison, and Desoto counties have the highest HIV rates in the state and the highest increase are among individuals aged 13-34. 

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Others lending their voices to the conversation were Equiller Mahone from Mississippi Center for Justice and panelists Rashad Pollard, Tiara Jackson, Love Latonia, Mercedes Henry, and Jammarian Harden. Media personality Othor Cain served as moderator. Richard Mack performed a welcome song after Aaliyah Westbrook prayed for the purpose of the gathering to be fulfilled. A responsive reading was led by Althea Lewis. The event concluded with a balloon release on the Jackson Medical Mall grounds in memory of those who died due to complications with the disease.

CARE4ME Services

In 2014, the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation established CARE4ME Services to improve the health outcomes of persons living with HIV and to serve as the bridge to prevent gaps in HIV educational and supportive services. All programs address identified needs within communities of color. Using a strength-based community wellness approach, the innovative programs focus on prevention, testing, awareness, linkage and re-engagement in care and essential services, reduction of stigma, and new cases of HIV and other STDs/STIs. CARE4ME Services’ innovative comprehensive high-impact HIV prevention program includes:

5Voices@6 is an innovative program that fosters leadership and empowerment through communication and mobilization in the reduction of HIV.

The SPOT-Jackson (Safe Place Over Time) provides services and opportunities focusing on wellness, empowerment, and leadership. The SPOT offers its members a safe environment to openly discuss issues and challenges to help improve quality of life and to promote the concept of self-worth.

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The SPOT-Belzoni is a duplication of The SPOT-Jackson. It serves communities in the Mississippi Delta.

TTK (Test to Know Mobile Unit) actively provides individual and community level outreach activities and conducts targeted rapid HIV testing and other health testing/screening via the mobile unit.

Many Men, Many Voices (3MV) is an HIV/STD prevention intervention for Black men.

Peer Support is an individual and group level intervention that provides a safe place and opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations and support.

Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) provides education, referrals, and linkage activities within the system of prevention and supportive services.

Condom Distribution Program (CDP) is an HIV/STD public health prevention strategy.

Voices/VOCES (Video Opportunities for Innovative Condom Education & Safer Sex) is a video-based HIV STD prevention intervention.

Author
Alice Thomas

Alice Thomas-Tisdale is publisher emerita of the Jackson Advocate, the oldest regularly published Black newspaper in Mississippi. She is a native of Racine, Wisconsin, the eighth of nine children born to William and Esther Thomas. She retired in 2020 after giving 38 years of service to the publication. She assumed the role of publisher in 2007 after the death of her husband and publisher, Charles W. Tisdale. In her role as president of the local NAACP of Mound Bayou, MS, she attended several statewide meetings in Jackson, MS. There she met Charles Tisdale, publisher of the Jackson Advocate who she later married. She began selling the newspaper and initiated the “Mound Bayou Briefs,” a column about issues and life in the Mississippi Delta. She eventually moved to Jackson to work with the newspaper and became the associate publisher.

Thomas-Tisdale has applied her passion and talents for community building throughout her career. She received her education from Washington Park High School and Washington State University which she used to educate the community on numerous topics, most importantly, quality of life issues. Alice is the founder and president of NEIGHBORS (Nation’s Evacuees in Good Hands w/Benevolent Out-Reach Services). This program helped displaced victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She is also a Metlife fellow, HIV/AIDS advocate, and has extensive training in health journalism, including “Families USA” and “New America Media.”

Thomas-Tisdale, who has visited several countries in her journalistic capacity, reported on a number of important world issues. She has reported on the land issue in Zimbabwe, Africa; the slavery issue in Sudan, Africa; African-American business opportunities in Japan; and human rights issues in Kazakhstan. She has attended and reported on the International AIDS Conferences in Barcelona, Spain; Bangkok, Thailand; and Toronto, Canada from an African-American perspective. She has also reported on the achievements of African American female pilots in France.

Thomas-Tisdale has received numerous honors: the Medgar Wiley Evers Lifetime Achievement Award; the NAACP Legacy Award; the SCLC Service Award; the City of Jackson Martin Luther King Jr. Woman of the Year Award; the Margaret Walker Alexander Literary Award; the Forward Lookers Excellence in Journalism Award; and is listed at the University of Southern Mississippi School of Journalism Hall of Fame. 

Alice’s most treasured accomplishment is that of being the mother of daughter, DeAnna Tisdale Johnson, an accomplished classical singer. On February 29, 2021, DeAnna assumed the role of publisher/editor upon her mother’s retirement. 

Alice is most appreciative of her late husband, Charles Tisdale, for providing the opportunities associated with working with the Black Press. She credits all of her successes as rewards for serving God.

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