In 1983, the AIDS epidemic mobilized a group of San Francisco mental health providers to fashion a community response. In the absence of a clear scientific explanation for the cause of the disease, how it was acquired, how it might be prevented, and how it might be treated, San Francisco faced not only the physical manifestations—deterioration and dying young people—but also the exploding psychology of crisis: horror, despair, apathy, fear. And the crisis of mental, as well as physical, health grasped not only men who had sex with men, people who injected drugs, people being treated for hemophilia, and sexual partners of people who engaged in these behaviors, but also their loved ones, co-workers, neighbors, and health and mental health providers.

There is always a psychological component to physical disease. In the case of AIDS, the group of providers who founded the UCSF AIDS Health Project in 1984 realized that the psychological component of HIV was as difficult to comprehend, as challenging to treat as the HIV disease itself. But, in 1984, unlike HIV disease, the horror, despair, apathy, fear—and a host of other responses to the disease, to living at an epicenter in crisis, to mourning loss, to trying to avoid getting infected—were, at least, treatable. The AIDS Health Project was among the first manifestations of a community that had committed to respond, to treat itself; and it became among its most enduring: a manifestation that turned out to be a productive response, a treatment.

This is the crucible in which we defined AHP’s mission, goals, and values. Fast-forward 30 years. AHP has kept this mission, and the goals and values that derived from it, close to our hearts and primary in our minds—despite shifts in the epidemic, in the focus and scope of our services, and in the populations we have served. When AHP changed its name from the AIDS Health Project to the Alliance Health Project and expanded our mission to explicitly include the health and wellness of LGBTQ people, it reflected only minor changes in focus, a broadening, rather than a moving on or past or away from. We promise our clients and our communities that we will always be AHP: whatever shifts we make will never compromise this history, and will always reflect sustenance of programs that work, innovation in response to new challenges, and never abandonment or complacency.

We are committed to actively dismantling white supremacy at the UCSF Alliance Health Project. The events and racial reckoning of 2020 forced us to reflect and acknowledge our role in perpetuating implicit and explicit anti-blackness. We recognized that for far too long we relied on a white supremacist frame to shape policies, procedures, and agency norms on racism. We were wrong.

We are committed to building anti-racist systems within our agency that hold power and privilege accountable in all aspects of our work and in ourselves—making the idea of equality more than just an ideal. We are dedicated to valuing the survivors of white supremacy to move forward in our goal to abolish systems of injustice. Together, we are committed to creating an environment where each client and staff member is inspired to bloom into their authentic selves.

This is a living commitment which will help us evolve alongside the needs of the community.