With the nature of our project, it would be very difficult to imagine the actual struggles that previously incarcerated individuals with AIDS through on a day to day basis. However, with the interviews and insights I was able to gain from professionals working with those individuals and the actual individuals themselves.
Growing up, the society in which I would live would tend not to be the best and most economically strong place. After a negative upbringing, drug use and crime tends to be imminent. After possession and use, Incarceration would be a given for possibly up to many years. Family would disappear and friends would fade, as this struggle of life would be dealt with.
Coming out of prison, there is ultimately nowhere to stay. There is no family, no friends (who have such a place to stay). There is no guaranteed medicine anymore as that was only in prison and there is a criminal record looming. Employers say no when jobs are sought after and landlords can’t provide housing because there is no collateral and no fixed cash flow incomes.
With this in mind, what even are the options for help? AIDS ministries only provide medicine for a certain period of time and temporary housing and Imani Unidad only provides group meeting and counseling. What is needed is a change in lifestyle that can only be accomplished by getting a job and housing. Without, the viscous cycle of committing the same crimes and spirilling back to prison is almost a guarantee, if not sought after completely (permanent housing, medical care, food).
This, as explained to me, is really the immersion experience that these individuals go through. Our project seeks to highlight these individuals and try to bring about a product that can be implemented so that these people may become their own best self-advocates. A change that can fight the systematic discrimination brought on by people who are actually trying to bring about a meaningful difference to their life and for the better.