Last month, Doorways opened a new $40 million, three-acre campus headquarters in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood. They’ve opened ten apartment buildings so far to house St. Louisans living with HIV/AIDS.
They’ve also partnered with Clementine’s Creamery — and St. Louis native Andy Cohen — to expand their reach. Doorways CEO and President Opal Jones joined KMOX to talk more about Doorway’s mission and what the expansion means for them.
She told KMOX that there are more than 15,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the St. Louis region.
“Fortunately, the medications are much better than they have ever been. So that means that… people live longer and can expect to live full lives if they stay on their medications,” she said. “But the unfortunate thing about that is that the number of need continues to grow. Because the overwhelming majority — over 80% — of the people living with HIV in our region who have the diagnosis live below the poverty line.”
That means an organization like Doorways has a lot of people to help. Jones said a lot of the people they help have experienced homelessness or poverty, and many come from marginalized communities.
“LGBTQ, African American, persons of color, all of these things,” she said. “And how do we help them get the life skills they need, and the other supportive services around mental health and substance abuse and all of those things, so that they can reach greater levels of independence and rely less on services like Doorway?”
So how did Doorway start working with Andy Cohen and Clementine’s? Jones said that Andy Cohen’s mom Evelyn is one of the early founders of Doorways.
“She was there very early on, and she's a dear friend of mine and Doorways. And so she keeps us on our toes,” Jones said. “Andy's going to help us out and he's also been a wonderful friend over the years. So it just so happened that Tamara Keefe at Clementine’s had been talking to Andy about doing a special ice cream for the holidays. And he said, ‘Well, I want a portion of the money raised to go to Doorways.’And so that's how it all came together.”
The flavor they created is called Peppermint Andy. “They sourced the peppermints from New York and the chocolate is high quality,” Jones said. “I don't need to sell this. It'll sell itself.”
Hear more about the work Doorways is doing and how they’re helping St. Louisans with HIV/AIDS this holiday season:
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