Gilead Sciences & Wake Forest University School of Divinity Partner to Address HIV Epidemic Through Faith-Based Programming &...
February 16 2021 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
– Gilead Will Provide $5 Million in Grant
Funding to Wake Forest Over 3 Years as Part of the Gilead COMPASS
Initiative® in the Southern United States –
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) today announced a new
partnership with the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, one
of the leading academic and faith-based institutions in the United
States, as part of the company’s ongoing COMPASS Initiative®.
Through COMPASS, Gilead works with non-profit and academic
institutions, which serve as coordinating centers that direct
support to local community organizations through grants, training
and collaborative learning opportunities to help mitigate the HIV
epidemic in the Southern United States.
Wake Forest will serve as the initiative’s fourth coordinating
center, expanding into faith-based communities, notably the Black
church, to address an important element of Gilead’s strategy to
reach people living with or at risk of HIV in the Southern United
States. Wake Forest will join the existing coordinating centers:
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Southern AIDS
Coalition and the University of Houston Graduate College of Social
Work.
“In our role as a coordinating center, the Wake Forest
University School of Divinity is looking forward to working with
other faith-based organizations to shift harmful cultural
narratives about HIV throughout the Southern United States to
narratives of justice, healing and hope,” said Rev. Jonathan Lee
Walton, PhD, Dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
“We are pleased to work with Gilead and the other coordinating
centers to help advance social justice, interfaith and LGBTQ+
issues across communities and build strong partnerships that bring
innovative solutions to people living with and at risk of HIV.”
“COMPASS is an important example of Gilead’s commitment to
address healthcare disparities as part of our broader efforts to
promote social justice,” said Daniel O’Day, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Gilead Sciences. "From our years of working with
people and organizations battling HIV in the Southern United
States, we recognize the important role of faith communities and
leaders. We are looking forward to working with Wake Forest and a
growing network of faith leaders as part of the overarching efforts
to end the HIV epidemic.”
Launched in 2017, COMPASS is a 10-year, more than $100 million
collaborative initiative that seeks to eradicate underlying serious
and systemic challenges that contribute to the HIV epidemic in the
Southern United States. These challenges require coordinated and
cross-sector responses primarily focused on combating stigma,
improving the quality of and access to healthcare services and
increasing local leadership and advocacy efforts for those impacted
by HIV. Through Gilead’s work with the coordinating centers and
direct engagement with partners in the region, the company has
provided $52 million in funding to the Southern United States since
the program’s inception, in support of nearly 150
organizations.
COMPASS focuses on the geographies in the Southern United States
identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as hardest hit by
HIV, and where the government is providing additional resources,
technology and expertise to expand HIV prevention and treatment
activities.
The Black community and other communities of color continue to
experience the greatest burden of HIV in the United States,
according to the CDC. Despite being only 13% of the U.S.
population, Black Americans account for 43% of the new HIV
diagnoses in the country. The disproportionate impact on these
communities is particularly high in the Southern United States,
where 53% of people living with HIV and 52% of new diagnoses occur
among Black individuals. This disparity is even higher among women:
Black women account for 67% of all women with diagnosed HIV in the
Southern United States.
“The disproportionate burden of HIV on Black communities and
other communities of color in the U.S. South is alarming,” said
Rev. Shonda Jones, EdD, who will lead the coordinating center’s
activities and is Senior Associate Dean of the Wake Forest
University School of Divinity. “Through COMPASS, we have an
opportunity to eradicate root causes of HIV, including stigma, and
to reach people impacted by the disease through Black churches and
other interfaith partners in the Southern United States.”
Outreach in the context of interfaith services and beyond offers
an opportunity to educate community organizations about HIV.
“I know first-hand about the stigma that many of us face in the
Black community,” said Morris Singletary, Executive Director of
Pozitive2Positive, which first received COMPASS funding in 2019.
“COMPASS has given our organization the opportunity to help connect
with Black men of faith and build a program that helps us support
one another. I look forward to working with Wake Forest and Gilead
to drive change and foster conversations around faith, sexuality
and health.”
About Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that has
pursued and achieved breakthroughs in medicine for more than three
decades, with the goal of creating a healthier world for all
people. The company is committed to advancing innovative medicines
to prevent and treat life-threatening diseases, including HIV,
viral hepatitis and cancer. Gilead operates in more than 35
countries worldwide, with headquarters in Foster City,
California.
Gilead has promoted equity, particularly healthcare equity,
since the company brought its first therapies to the market.
Through global partnerships, Gilead’s medicines today reach
millions of people in low- and middle-income countries around the
world. In the United States, Gilead has committed more than $100
million over 10 years through the COMPASS Initiative to community
organizations that are working to combat HIV in the Southern United
States. In 2020, Gilead launched the Racial Equity Community Impact
Fund to support organizations tackling racial inequities affecting
Black communities across the United States.
For more information about Gilead, please visit the company’s
website at www.gilead.com, follow Gilead on Twitter (@Gilead
Sciences) or call Gilead Public Affairs at 1-800-GILEAD-5 or
1-650-574-3000.
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