Uncle Al’s Passing, Great Loss for Poverello and Our Volunteer Community
In light of Uncle Al’s passing, we would like to honor his memory through reprinting this March 2018 article written by another Poverello volunteer James Stoop:
In the clothing sorting area at the Poverello Thrift Store, “Uncle Al” has become a regular fixture, volunteering his time four mornings a week for well over a year now. Most people at Poverello probably don’t even know that his last name is Gibson, or that his friends also call him “Alley Paley.” But the connotation that this man is either your “uncle” or your “pal” says a lot about his character.
Born in Brooklyn, raised in the Bronx, and eventually settling in Seaford, Long Island, Al Gibson at 89 years of age is not even thinking about slowing down. “No matter what ails you, you’ve got to keep moving,” he said while taking a break from his volunteer duties. And when he’s not volunteering at Poverello, Uncle Al is the day manager at le Boy, a gay club in Fort Lauderdale.
In 1950, Uncle Al was drafted into the Army, serving for two years as a mess sergeant at Army bases in New Jersey, Georgia, Texas and California. But it was his service at Camp Desert Rock in Nevada that was the most memorable. For believe it or not, Al and his company were ordered outside to witness firsthand (and at relatively close range) an above ground test of an atomic bomb. “It goes without saying,” he remarked, “that it was an experience I will never forget.”
After he got out of the Army, Al went to work for his father and mother at their office furniture and interior design business, S. Gibson and Son. During this time, he married and had two sons and a daughter (and now six grandchildren as well). But it wasn’t long before he went his own way, purchasing a competitors office furniture and interior design business in the garment district of Manhattan. His sons took over running the business when he retired to Florida in 1980.
When Uncle Al arrived, he purchased a condo in Fort Lauderdale, where he still lives today. At the time, his mother was living in Broward County, with other relatives in the area as well. He eventually took a job as controller for American Excess, a company that bought and sold excess inventory. After leaving that position, and taking a much needed break, he was at it again, this time taking a job as a bartender at the Fort Lauderdale gay club Johnny’s. Before long his involvement at Johnny’s grew to working in the office and as a club manager. It was at Johnny’s that Uncle Al first became acquainted with Poverello. As part of his duties as a manager at the club, he would occasionally conduct auctions, raffles and car washes to benefit Poverello, raising a lot of cash for the charity. A little over a year ago, after operating for more than 30 years at its two locations, Johnny’s closed its doors, opening the next day as le Boy at its new location on 11th Street at the original Bill’s Filling Station location.
“Poverello is the greatest charity around,” Uncle Al remarked. “They do a world of good here, and they have a wonderful group of volunteers. I love working here and would do anything they asked me to do,” he added. “It’s part of what keeps me going.”
It doesn’t appear that this volunteer/Board member is going to slow his pace in helping Poverello achieve its mission and goals. “The level of commitment and importance of the volunteers who work here, and the amazing outreach of this organization, still keeps me excited to this day,” he remarked.
Article written by James Stoup, Poverello Volunteer
03/16/2018.
Available: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6769697161169952768/
2019 HIV Data Now Available
The Florida Department of Health has completed the routine interstate deduplication review for the 2019 HIV data and can now provide you with a brief update on the state of the HIV epidemic in Florida. Please also see attached statewide epidemiological profile excel sheet for more detail. This updated information will also be published on our website and in CHARTS along with annual death data by August 28, 2020.
NOTE: All HIV data is updated in CHARTS once a year. Any additional deduplication from CDC that occurred in the last year may result in slightly lower numbers for previous years.
- In 2019, 4,584 persons were newly diagnosed with HIV, this is a 4% decrease from 2018 (4,752).
- 38% were Black
- 36% were Hispanic/Latinx
- 24% were White
- 2% were other races (including American Indian, Asian, and mixed race)
- 33% were between the ages of 13–29, 44% were aged 30–49 and 23% were over the age of 50
- For the first time in the history of the HIV epidemic, there were no perinatally acquired HIV diagnoses in Florida in 2019. There were eight in 2018.
- The majority (59%) of new HIV diagnoses were men who had sexual contact with men (MSM), one-third (33%) had heterosexual contact and 5% were persons who inject drugs (PWID).
- Only 17 out of the 67 counties saw an increase in new diagnoses of HIV from 2018 to 2019 (compared to 31 counties in the previous year). All but two of the seven Ending the HIV Epidemic counties in Florida saw a decrease in HIV diagnoses from 2018 to 2019. Orange County saw a 1% increase from 2018 (N=469) to 2019 (N=474), while Pinellas County saw a 9% increase from 2018 (N=180) to 2019 (N=196) (see table below).
| HIV County | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018–2019 Percent (%) Change | 2015–2019 Percent (%) Change |
| Miami-Dade | 1,333 | 1,263 | 1,169 | 1,194 | 1,181 | -1% | -11% |
| Broward | 651 | 744 | 710 | 640 | 624 | -3% | -4% |
| Orange | 420 | 428 | 468 | 469 | 474 | 1% | 13% |
| Hillsborough | 326 | 301 | 307 | 313 | 285 | -9% | -13% |
| Duval | 272 | 280 | 305 | 293 | 284 | -3% | 4% |
| Palm Beach | 280 | 297 | 298 | 287 | 248 | -14% | -11% |
| Pinellas | 182 | 164 | 178 | 180 | 196 | 9% | 8% |
| Polk | 103 | 118 | 97 | 110 | 129 | 17% | 25% |
| Brevard | 58 | 59 | 58 | 65 | 87 | 34% | 50% |
| Lee | 85 | 105 | 78 | 76 | 83 | 9% | -2% |
| FLORIDA | 4,691 | 4,797 | 4,748 | 4,752 | 4,584 | -4% | -2% |
| HIV diagnoses by year of diagnosis represent persons whose HIV was diagnosed in that year, regardless of AIDS status at time of diagnosis | |||||||
Reuter’s Article Mentions Poverello
A Message from our CEO:
Check out this Reuter’s story about the struggles all nonprofits including Poverello are facing right now. I’m grateful to the Community Partnerships Division of Broward County for pre-purchasing services from us. You allowed us to keep serving, turn no one away, make payroll, pay our food venders and keep the lights on. So borrowing against future service delivery has kept us afloat until donations from Florida AIDSwalk and reimbursements from Family Success Division are processed. Thank You! Your support over the 20+ years of collaboration with Poverello has allowed us to show compassion in this unprecedented emergency.
Be sure to understand, we need extra resources, not to care for people with HIV, but to care for the numbers of people who’ve recently lost their jobs. We’ve already provided funding for our people with HIV from Community Partnerships Division of Broward County. We need funding for the unprecedented number of people who have lost work and need groceries experiencing this emergency.
We’re delivering to people with COVID-19. How does anyone expect they’ll eat while sick, out of work and without food unless we deliver it? Daily around 20 new families are requesting help. That’s $1500 a day worth of groceries we’re providing just to NEW clients. We cannot sustain this level of need without rapid, significant support coming from our leaders in government at all levels and generous donors. 5 mile long lines of cars lining up for a few bags of groceries once is not the answer. People deserve better!
Florida Department of Health in Broward County’s Survey for Ending the HIV Epidemic
To achieve the goal of ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States in 10 years, designated state and local health departments throughout the nation will develop comprehensive “Ending the HIV Epidemic” jurisdictional plans under the leadership of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The initiative will leverage the powerful data and tools now available with the goal of reducing new HIV infections in the United States by 75 percent in five years and by 90 percent by 2030.
The Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) is launching the first phase of the “Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America” (EHE) Initiative. DOH-Broward is committed to expanding community engagement and involvement. Our Ending the HIV Epidemic Survey can be accessed at www.GetPrEPBroward.com. This important survey is one opportunity for our community to share valuable input on how Broward County can enhance future HIV prevention, early intervention and care efforts. Findings from the survey as well as other opportunities to gather community input will assist in the creation of a plan that incorporates new and innovative strategies.
Please help us to get the word out! Share this with your friends, community, stakeholders, providers and links via social media sites. We are dedicated to incorporating new voices, new partners and new ideas in the effort to end the HIV epidemic.
Here are the links for the survey for each language:
English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KNT6PSY
Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/82H8FLW
Creole: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XPTHYJT
Portuguese: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZNR35W5
Emergency Food Assistance
In partnership with Broward County’s Family Success Administration Division, The Poverello Center provides emergency food assistance to Broward County residents who are food insecure and who are not receiving any food assistance from another organization. A maximum of six disbursements of food are available to a head of household and one dependent within a given contract year. These disbursements occur at locations in South, Center and North Broward County locations:
South: Jubilee Center of Hollywood
Central: MODCO and Bethel Social Services
North: (Coming Soon) Poverello at the corner of Powerline and Atlantic