HISTORY

MAP History

Minority AIDS Project (MAP) is the first community based HIV/AIDS organization established and managed by people of color in the United States.  Archbishop Carl Bean and members of Unity Fellowship Church founded Minority AIDS Project in 1985. MAP’s services and educational programs are community-wide and available to all people.  However, from the beginning, the primary focus of our services and outreach has been the African-American and Latino communities in Central and South Central Los Angeles.  Until the doors opened at MAP, these communities had little or no real access to preventive education and essential health care services. 

Archbishop Bean and a handful of volunteers began the work by providing a culturally competent continuum-of-care of AIDS-related services as well as providing the facts about HIV/AIDS to individuals and community groups who were interested.  At the outset, the services met the needs of a caseload of 15 clients living with AIDS.

Today, MAP employs more than 44 full-time, part-time, and subcontracted bilingual staff.  Staff work is enhanced by the supportive talents of over 200 volunteers to serve the needs of more than 1,200 clients living with HIV/AIDS per month.  MAP also provides prevention services to over 12,000 individuals per year.   The African-American community accounts for 75% of our client population, Latinos, 21%, and the remaining 4% are Anglo and Asian population.