DIFFA Grants a Total of $225K to These 17 Groups Fighting HIV

Cindy Allen, DIFFA board chair and editor in chief of Interior Design magazine, is surrounded by DIFFA grantees.

As January ends, we’re finally catching our breath from all the holiday festivities. As we look back on the whirlwind of activities, one of the highlights for us was the DIFFA Thanks For Giving Cocktail Party at the Herman Miller Showroom in Midtown Manhattan.

DIFFA--Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS--was celebrating the 17 HIV/AIDS organizations that received a total of $225,000 in grants from DIFFA. These particular grantees are located in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Georgia; combined, they offer an amazing range of services that cater to the HIV community.

Representatives from most of the groups attended the event, which gave us a chance to catch up on the important work they’re doing--that is, when we weren’t sidetracked by drooling over all the furniture in the Herman Miller showroom. We were glad to hear that Bailey House, which offers housing for HIV-positive people in New York City, is finally rebuilding after the damage it suffered from Hurricane Sandy back in 2012.

And we were excited to learn that Planned Parenthood is even more active in HIV work and prevention, and that the Washington Heights CORNER Project is using social media as a way to provide a needle exchange program to those injection drug users more apt to pick up syringes using modern technology.

Below is a list of DIFFA National’s 2015 Grantees:

AIDS Leadership Foothills-area Alliance (ALFA)
Ali Forney Center
The Alpha Workshops
Bailey House
BOOM!Health
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
The Correctional Association of New York
GMHC
God’s Love We Deliver
HEAT Program at SUNY Downstate
HMI (Hetrick-Martin Institute)
Housing Works
Jerusalem House
Just Been Tested Foundation
Planned Parenthood of New York City
SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders)
Washington Heights CORNER Project

A slew of DIFFA fundraising events are already scheduled for 2016 across the nation, including the February 1 Gifts for Life Party in New York City and the April 30 Picnic by Design event in Las Vegas.

Click here for a calendar of events. Supporting the HIV fight has never been more fun and stylish. Below are two more pics from the Thanks for Giving event.