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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - December 23, 2008
Luvenia Suber Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
December 23, 2008

Brooklyn, New York Resident Wins Cash Award To Create Educational Program On HIV/AIDS Revention


(New York, NY, December 23, 2008) - Brooklyn, New York resident Luvenia Suber, 56, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Luvenia was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She is the sixth recipient of a Hello Tomorrow Fund award in New York state since the program launched in 2007, and was selected by an expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, and actress Phylicia Rashad. Luvenia will use her award to launch the Red Hook Women’s Empowerment Center (RHWEC), a program that will provide women with resources, support, and education to better protect themselves against HIV/AIDS as well as support to those living with the disease.

It is estimated that 39.5 million people worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS. The best hope for preventing the further spread of HIV/AIDS lies in prevention, treatment, and education, reports the Mayo Clinic. Within the community of Red Hook, Brooklyn, poverty, single parenting and now a disproportionate HIV infection and death rate have affected the small area. Luvenia believes many women in Red Hook are not properly informed on how to protect themselves against the virus and are unaware of how to care for themselves when they become infected with HIV. Since many of these women are already struggling in this poor economy, many of them single mothers, battling HIV/AIDS is often one of many life challenges that they face.

Luvenia has worked for many years helping to empower women and their families, from conducting mental health workshops to working as a case manager for high-risk and HIV-positive women, and for ten years she assisted women who had been released from prison establish new jobs, new homes, and new lives. In May 2005, she began work at Village Care of New York (VCNY), a community-based, not-for-profit organization that assists senior citizens and others who need medical and rehabilitation services. While working at VCNY, Luvenia helped to launch the Red Hook Community Center (RHCC), which works to educate women and children about substance abuse, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, and healthy living. Through her work at RHCC, Luvenia recognized that women learn, as well as cope, with HIV differently than men, and was inspired to create a program at the Center specifically geared towards addressing those issues. The RHCC did not have the additional funds needed to properly support the program, but that is where the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund can help.

Luvenia will launch the Red Hook Women’s Empowerment Center, which will offer peer support groups, resources to those living with HIV and AIDS and classes on prevention and care to approximately 200 women in the Red Hook area, ages 18 to 50. The funds will help to pay for skills teachers and a social worker as well as daily operating costs for the first year of the program. While women are at the RHWEC, childcare will be provided so mothers can focus on the program. As part of the curriculum at RHWEC, the Skill Strengthening Series (SSS) and a session called Positively Pampered will be offered; SSS will teach women stress management techniques and exercises through yoga and creative expression, while Positively Pampered will incorporate lessons on self-worth and HIV prevention into a “day of beauty.” With assistance from the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, Luvenia’s program will aid women in preventing and living with HIV/AIDS, thus empowering their families and helping to make the Red Hook community safer and healthier.

Luvenia’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad, Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York, and experts in business and grantmaking. “Luvenia’s idea of using already existing best practice programs along with new ones for HIV and woman is absolutely innovative and brilliant,” commented judge Lynn Stekas on Luvenia’s proposal.

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