Shanti volunteer David Silverman (left) sits with his Crossings client Jeff Hidalgo (right), Photographer Unknown. Courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society.
Crossings began offering its services to low income people and families affected by HIV/AIDS in the Tenderloin and Mission District in 1992. After Shanti merged the Emotional and Practical Support Programs into the Volunteer Client Services Department, former Practical Support Manager Ericka Huggins designed and organized Crossings to serve a growing population, children and young adults with HIV, and historically underserved people with HIV, specificallypeople of color, low income gay men and transgender women, children, and non-English speaking PWAs. As opposed to having a single volunteer for a single client; a team of trained peer volunteers were assigned to a neighborhood or specific space. For instance, Crossing’s shared its Tenderloin office in The Ambassador Hotel with the groundbreaking AIDS Indigent Direct Services (A.I.D.S.) which was founded by a public health nurse-gay black activist George McGuire to serve as a link to case management and medical care for the poor and low income occupants living with AIDS/HIV in the hotel. Crossings also had offices in the Mission.
Alongside A.I.D.S.; Crossings partnered with Camp Sunburst to provide HIV+ children and young adults in San Francisco and the East Bay an opportunity to go camping and hiking over the summer with other children and parents affected by HIV. Ericka Huggins recalled “The beauty of Camp Sunburst is that it served children from all over North America, not just the United States, but Canada and Mexico, every summer. It was in this beautiful—always in a beautiful location in the Sierra foothills. It was just the most lovely thing. Children would literally live for that camp. I don’t think I need to explain what I mean. It was a place that they could be with children just like themselves and be children.” But, even if a child was too ill to travel, Crossings would provide them with a volunteer, as seen in the above photo of Jeff Hidalgo and his volunteer. Jeff, 14 at the time of the photo, contracted HIV through a blood treatment for his hemophilia. Outside of his family and siblings, when Jeff was sick he had no outside contact until his family came into contact with Crossings. Jeff’s father told a journalist, “We didn’t find Shanti, they found us.” While David had planned things for him and Jeff, due to his waning health David changed his activities to just sit and be with Jeff while he watched television. In the late 1990s Crossings and its model of peer volunteer teams would be integrated into the client services program while retaining its service provision to low income families and people of color affected by HIV/AIDS.
I loved seeing this-I am working on a documentary on Pedi HIV/AIDS and I am the founder Geri DeLaRosa of Camp Sunburst. I was so happy to see this relationship archived at Shanti. Faith Carr my daughter helped with the Crossings Street Outreach Program. Sending you all love in the new pandemic of COVID. Love, Geri
My daughter Faith Carr was hired by Erika Huggins as the Volunteer Coordinator of the Crossings Program. Faith and I worked together in the same office space on Valencia and I was contracted through the San Francisco Department of Social Services to run Family Special Services for families in San Francisco living with HIV/AIDS. Family Special Services was the only HIV/AIDS psychosocial program for families in San Francisco. Rob Tufel and I started the first children support groups in San San Francisco.