Community outreach
Friends in Action
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Our outreach team, Friends in Action, is a team of multicultural and multigenerational Friends staff members who focus on providing everyone living in the Mid-South with free sexual health resources, education, and empowerment.
Our team’s mission is the same as Friends For All: to help our Memphis community overcome the social determinants of health that negatively influence the rates of HIV. Friends in Action does this through compassionate, cross-cultural outreach that breaks barriers to provide everyone with access to the resources they need to live a healthier life here in Memphis.
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Friends in Action typically work Tuesday through Saturday, with days added to meet the needs of our community.
During the week, we focus on outreach efforts with different groups, organizations, and businesses across the Memphis area. Our primary form of outreach involves free HIV testing and linkage to full-panel STI testing, and prevention and treatment services. Our outreach team can conduct free rapid HIV testing on location, with linkage to resources through our Friends For All Clinic, like full sexual health check-ups, HIV prevention options, and linkage to immediate care for those who test positive.
All of our testing is confidential and results are kept locked away with no sharing with third parties.
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Our team has conducted educational outreach to our community since 2013. Not only do we conduct testing, but our weekly outreach helps promote and advocate for sexual health literacy in the Mid-South. Here’s how we help empower and educate our Memphis community:
Sexual Health Classes: Our team members often go into the community to teach classes centered around safe sex education and reducing stigma. We also offer tools and resources that promote safe sexual practices. We do these classes for free for local schools, organizations, and small groups by request.
Faith-Based Connections: Our team is passionate about teaming up with local faith-based organizations to ensure that more people in our community are aware of our services and are educated on testing, treatment, and safe sexual practices. We offer mobile testing and educational classes to all faith-based organizations upon request.
Condom Distribution: Our team distributes nearly 3,000 condoms per month to local community groups and organizations that express a need for free condom distribution. Condom distribution is key in promoting safe sexual practices, so we ensure that our Mid-South friends have access to free condoms.
Educational Print Resources: When our team conducts outreach, we provide our community with an array of physical resources for education and wellness. Our goal is to spread the word about sexual health and wellness and provide community members with the power to educate their friends and families.
Cross-Cultural Engagement: Friends For All focuses on making sure everyone in Memphis and the Mid-South has access to the tools they need to live a happier and healthier life, regardless of sex, age, race, or sexual orientation- because everyone deserves to live a happy and healthy life. Our outreach team is comprised of multicultural team members who ensure that anyone in the are can have someone on our team to identify with them and make them feel comfortable enough to receive the compassionate care that we offer.
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Are you interested in having our team come to your group, business, organization, or event? Click here to request our team for your group and/or event. You can request us for testing, sexual health educational courses, general tabling, or all the above!
For direct contact, email Friends For All Outreach Manager Cristobal Valdebenito at cristobal.valdebenito@friendsforall.org.
You can also call our main headquarters at 901-272-0855.
Friends For All (Friends) is home to a dedicated Outreach team we call Friends in Action- a team that focuses on meeting our Mid-South community members where they are to provide sexual health support, education, and empowerment. Browse the dropdown options to learn more about Friends in Action!
