Vida/SIDA AIDS Education & Prevention Program
Open Monday-Friday, 10:00am-5:30pm
"Building A Community of Wellness"

OUR MISSION: To educate, advocate and empower Chicago’s Puerto Rican/Latino community by promoting culturally responsive health care/resources that enable health affirming behaviors and attitudes.

Vida/SIDA began in 1988 as an all-volunteer effort by students and staff of the Pedro Albizu Campos Alternative High School, an affiliate of the PRCC. The PRCC recognized the disproportionate increase of the HIV epidemic and the critical lack of services for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Puerto Rican/Latino community resulting from complex interrelated social conditions. In response the PRCC initiated a grassroots effort involving door-to-door distribution of condoms and educational brochures. In 1993, Vida/SIDA received its first Federal funding in acknowledgment of its role as a leader in the Chicago community. Today, the PRCC continues to provide services which address the needs of the community through pioneering projects and activities.

Vida/SIDA is a community-based outreach project dedicated to providing HIV/AIDS and STDs prevention education programming through peer-to-peer education. The peer-to-peer educators serve as street outreach workers providing HIV/AIDS and STD presentations and reproductive health educational materials to area schools and the Puerto Rican /Latino community. Community outreach work includes conducting presentations in various middle/high schools and organizations/agencies discussing topics such as Male/Female reproductive anatomy, STDs, HIV/AIDS and safer sex. The program reaches its target population by conducting free, anonymous and confidential HIV and STD testing and counseling.

Vida/SIDA (Life/AIDS) is a project of the PRCC designed to reach at-risk individuals and provide them with skills and education that empower and create leaders in the community. Recognizing and addressing the cultural diversity of the Puerto Rican and Latino populations, the project is broken up into three main peer-to-peer programs. Male Gang Outreach, Young Women’s Outreach, and MSM Outreach. Each year, Vida/SIDA’s health and peer educators reach 10,000+ community members through school workshops, street  outreach , and community cultural programs primarily in Humboldt Park, Logan Square,  and West Town of Chicago. Vida/SIDA’s peer outreach staff becomes effective health educators and in many cases return to serve the communities in which they live.

Services Offered:

HIV, STD & Pregnancy Testing

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday: 10:00am-5:00pm

Syphilis & Hepatitis Testing

On Thursday, October 28, then every two weeks after that.
12:00noon-5:00pm