Herstory

WORLD was founded by Rebecca Denison, and a small group of HIV+ women from the community, in April 1991.  With the support of Rebecca’s husband Dan Johnston,  the first issue of the WORLD Newsletter was mailed on May 1, 1991 to a mailing list of about 200. The San Francisco Chronicle announced the formation of WORLD and Rebecca received about 30 calls a day.  For the first four years of operation, WORLD was a very small, grassroots organization, which operated out of Rebecca’s living room in North Oakland.  After the first year, Rebecca was hired as the sole employee.  Today the Newsletter reaches more than 12,000 readers in over 80 countries.

After a few months, women involved with WORLD decided they wanted to have a retreat.  The first WORLD Retreat was held in 1991 at the Marin Headlands and 30 women attended.   The WORLD Speaker’s Bureau soon evolved with HIV-positive women speaking at schools, churches, jails, conferences, medical trainings and more.  An AIDS Library began with information on a variety of HIV/AIDS topics.  

In December, 1994, WORLD was able to hire a second staff person to assist Rebecca and coordinate the WORLD Retreats.  Also at this time, WORLD was finally able to move into a real office, located at 40th and Webster Streets, in North Oakland.   Retreats became larger events with 100 women attending and several workshop themes were added.   Following one of the retreats, women continued to meet to develop HIV University. “HIV U” began as and remains, a peer-run, AIDS treatment education class to provide easy-to-understand health information (including Western and Eastern therapies) as well as psychosocial issues. HIV U has become a model program and WORLD has trained women in over 40 cities across the country to replicate HIV U in their communities.

In 1997, WORLD was able to hire two additional office personnel to assist with Information Services and Volunteer Coordination.  Three months later, WORLD began a Peer Advocate Program to provide one-on-one support, guidance and information to other HIV-positive women and Peer Advocates were hired.

In 1998, WORLD began two Support Groups, one for youth (25 & under) and one for women living with HIV.  Also in 1998, WORLD moved to 13th Street and expanded the youth support group to a Youth Program (also known as “PYT,” or, Positive Youth Together).  The Youth Program was adopted by the Family Care Network (an 8 agency Ryan White Title IV collaborative) and is now based at the Downtown Youth Clinic with a Peer Advocate at Circle of Care.

In 1999, WORLD began to offer Pregnancy Peer Advocacy and for a short time offered free and anonymous HIV Testing and Street Outreach.    Also in 1999, WORLD held its first “You Are Not Alone” Press Conference and March through the streets of Oakland, joined by positive women and their supporters.  In 2000, WORLD hosted its first Women and Family Day Retreat for families of HIV-positive women.  

In 2000 WORLD received funding for a Latina Peer Advocate position in recognition of the growing HIV infection rate among Latinas.

In 2004 WORLD founder Rebecca Denison decided to move on from her daily work at WORLD after 13 years of incredible leadership and inspiration to countless HIV+ women. During the same year WORLD began it’s Linkage Improvements to Network Clients (LINCS) program. This is an outreach program focused on assisting HIV+ women who have fallen out of primary medical care and support services back into care.

In 2005 WORLD’s collaborative work with the Center for Health Training on the Lotus Project began. This is our national training of HIV+ women interested in Peer Advocacy work. Training sites have included Oakland,  San Diego, Texas and Atlanta with more to come.

In 2006 WORLD celebrated it’s 15-year anniversary and took the opportunity to honor founder Rebecca Denison.  The women of WORLD took to the streets once again on World AIDS Day to demand that the voices of HIV+ women be heard. For the first time, WORLD secured funding to fully support it’s Speakers Bureau and offered an extensive training that was completed by 10 HIV+ women committed to educating their communities.

In 2007 WORLD began its POWERR Project  (Positive Outreach with Women Empowered to Reduce Risk). This is a prevention project targeting African American young women and girls at risk for HIV with HIV+ women taking the lead as community trainers.

 
Though WORLD has grown significantly in more than 15 years of operation, we remain community-based, with all programs emphasizing peer-based advocacy and programming as well as relying on diverse volunteers and community members to support our programs and basic operations within and out of the office