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Hope Begins With Health
Health equity won at the 27th Annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards on May 9. The beloved event was a testament to the healing power of hope, as well as to all DAP Health frontline workers and their tireless commitment to HIV care, COVID relief, and access to ongoing medical and mental health care.
Hosted by Scott Nevins, TV personality and Out100 honoree, this year’s program aired on NBC Palm Springs as a celebration of the Hope Begins with Health campaign — a $2 million fundraising initiative to propel DAP Health’s frontline work. Nevins, who recently became a DAP Health board member, started the show by chatting with CEO David Brinkman in front of a mural in the new Les Dames du Soleil Lounge. The lounge was recently created as part of a promise to never forget DAP Health’s history. (See story on page 32.) “Tireless humanitarians in high heels represent the story of DAP Health,” Mr. Brinkman says. “It’s grassroots, it’s the LGBTQ+ community and our
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begins with health
allies combating stigma and discrimination, fighting for health equity with love and fearlessness.”
Brinkman was candid about why the non-profit’s approach to health equity is so essential today, and he included a challenge for everyone listening. “It’s COVID. It’s racism. It’s poverty. Our country needs all partners of all human rights movements to come together, including the LGBTQ+ community, to step up, leverage all our knowledge and assets, and to create health equity — period. It’s our evolution.”
I felt like yet, once again, history was repeating itself and DAP Health was there for the community.
Providing health care based on patient needs rather than their ability to pay is necessary for health equity, and DAP Health’s new logo conveys its commitment to helping more people. “Our new logo conveys modernity, strength, freshness, and an innovative approach to health care — that it should be there for everyone,” Brinkman concluded. This year’s Steve Chase event was a celebration of survival and perseverance. An entire community worked through its fear to ensure medical services remained continuous for patients.
“The response of our donors, volunteers, and staff has been to band together,” says Brinkman. “It has been challenging, but beautiful.”
Clockwise, Scott Nevins, TV personality and Out100 honoree, hosted the 27th Annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards. DAP Health Board Member Lauri Kibby. Keisha Howardson, known on stage as Keisha D., at The Purple Room in Palm Springs.
This year’s Chase amplified the Hope Begins with Health campaign, aimed at addressing four areas of need greatly affecting people over the last year, and expected to get worse.
DAP Health will: • Increase our reach with HIV prevention, care and advocacy. • Double the amount of mental health care services with more clinicians and a new Behavioral
Health Clinic. • Increase new medical health care patients, and offer them services to help with joblessness, food insecurity, and homelessness. • Continue its COVID Clinic and hotline to ensure everyone can access prevention, information, and treatment.
Board Chair Patrick Jordan helped everyone remember that funding care is still critical, even if things are different this year. He thanked everyone who donated. “Tonight’s show might be a little different from years past, but the spirit of giving continues to honor the legacy of our event’s namesake, Steve Chase,” he says. “To everyone who’s donated so far, thank you.” Jordan acknowledged his event co-chairs Lauri Kibby and Kevin Bass.
“The rebranding of DAP Health takes us out of one lane and puts us in multiple lanes and allows us to broaden our reach across the community,” Board Member Lauri Kibby says. “And Hope Begins with Health is a message for the entire Coachella Valley.” Kibby went on to cover an important topic many people don’t talk about — women living with HIV in our valley. “There’s a whole community of women throughout the entire Coachella Valley who are in need of the same services that the men are,” Kibby says. “They need health care, dental care, and mental health support services, and DAP Health provides all of that.”
Women Brought Activism Through Art and Heart
This year’s entertainers tugged at our heartstrings with moving vocal renditions of the classics and powerful sentiments. Sheryl Lee Ralph shared about losing a third
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of her fellow cast members to AIDS as she became the first Deena Jones in Dreamgirls on Broadway, galvanized her to become an activist for ending HIV. She delivered an inspiring combination of “When I First
Saw You” and “Listen.” Shoshana Bean captivated the audience with renditions of “With a Little Help From My Friends” and “This Is Me.”
Keisha Howardson is known on stage as Keisha D, one of Palm
More than 3,500
Coronavirus tests completed
2020: A Year of Impact
More than 10,000
therapy sessions to help those with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues
More than 8,000 HIV tests
giving lifesaving, expert guidance to individuals who received a positive diagnosis
More than 3,000
Hepatitis C tests completed
More than 3,500
substance abuse interventions
DAP Health donor Al Jones talks about his support to double the capacity of mental health services.
Springs’ most popular cabaret singers. Besides her family, singing is everything to her. When COVID hit, she became so sick that she had been given a year to live. That was before she became a patient of Dr. Morris, DAP Health’s Chief Medical Officer. From there, the journey of care began. “Dr. Morris said, ‘Trust me, you’re going to be back on stage. I’m going to watch you on stage.’” says Howardson. Keisha D is singing again these days. “I’m really thrilled and happy to be able to find that fighter inside of me, through the nurses and through the doctors at DAP Health,” she says.
New Behavioral Health Clinic Serving Double in 2021
Al Jones is a longtime donor and who is supporting our efforts to double the capacity of mental health services at DAP Health with a new clinic. For him, this is personal. Al’s partner and husband of 26 years, Mark Byrd, passed away after keeping his depression a secret. Help was all around them, but Mr. Byrd’s depression led him to cease his HIV treatment without telling anyone. “Had we known, we would have been able to get him the assistance that he needed,” says Jones. “DAP had the assistance, but we didn’t know.” Debilitating depression in some long–term HIV survivors leads them to stop taking their medication, and the results are often fatal. In the Mark Byrd Behavioral Health Clinic, people will be given the competent care they deserve, thanks to Jones. He also was eager to share his excitement about DAP Health’s Director of Behavioral Health, Dr. Jill Gover. “There’s somebody at DAP Health that you need to be aware of, and that’s Dr. Gover. She’s absolutely amazing. She’s very sensitive, but moreover, she’s very intuitive,” Jones says. “And that intuitive nature is what’s so important in a therapist. To be able to match a client with the appropriate therapist is really an art that you can’t replicate.”
Dr. Gover was brimming with gratitude as she thanked Jones, Partners for Life, and everyone who contributes to DAP Health. “It’s all of these contributions that make it possible for us to do our work here at DAP Health,” she says. “And for that, I’m just enormously grateful.”
Al Jones has chosen to name the new mental health clinic in memory of Marc with a generous planned gift in his estate, combined with annual contributions and fundraising efforts.
