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Safe Space's Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative still requires another $50,000 to meet its overall program budget.

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Fergie Visits Safe Space

In 2008, the MAC AIDS Fund launched its Global Youth HIV-Prevention Initiative. The initiative provides support to organizations such as Safe Space that fight prejudice, fear and stigma, factors that hinder access to testing, care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2007 alone, the MAC AIDS Fund donated over $11 million to more than 300 non-profit organizations in the United States.

This year, the MAC AIDS Fund generously awarded Safe Space with a $200,000 grant. These funds will allow Safe Space to replicate and enhance our Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative, a component of our Young Adult Services that includes our Drop-In Centers and programs like Girl To Girl, Safer Dayz, Safe Home, Project GAIN and Project REY. The principle goal of Safe Space's new Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention Program is to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among at-risk urban youth and provide them with the knowledge and understanding to empower them to take active roles in the Global HIV-Prevention Initiative. Safe Space proposes to achieve this goal through innovative programming that includes creative arts coupled with science-based HIV and pregnancy prevention training for peer educators.

On Wednesday, September 3, 2008, twelve youth involved in a variety of Safe Space's Youth Services programs spent their afternoon at the Manhattan Youth High-Risk Drop-In Center with Grammy Award winner, model, actress, philanthropist and spokesperson of the MAC AIDS Fund's VIVA GLAM, Fergie.

During the afternoon, youth from the Youth 4 Arts and Music & Life programs performed skits, songs and slam poetry that illustrated the daily pressures they experience regarding the awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS within their social networks. Later, Fergie asked them about their personal accounts relating to these issues, going back and forth with questions and answers. She shared her personal story of a rough childhood and provided hope through a motivational speech that left the young faces beaming and flushed with optimism.

"It was so great to see how engaged the kids were," said Michelle Maraziti Program Director of the Manhattan Youth High-Risk Drop-In Center. "The respect that Fergie gave these youth, addressing them as adults and listening to their stories really boosted their self-esteem and increased their confidence. She was able to relate to these youth on a personal level, showing them that a rough past doesn't have to result in a difficult future. She was an inspiration to everyone." Fergie, along with other notable celebrities such as Dita Von Teese and Eve, is a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics, which established the MAC AIDS Fund in 1994. To date, MAC Cosmetics has provided more than $128 million to the MAC AIDS Fund, as the entire revenue of their line VIVA GLAM lipstick, goes directly to the Fund.

The MAC AIDS Fund supports men, women and children around the globe who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. From Africa to the Caribbean, the MAC AIDS Fund serves the world's most vulnerable populations by providing basic life-saving and life-sustaining needs such as assistance pertaining to nutrition, housing and necessary medical attention.

Safe Space would like to thank Fergie and the MAC AIDS Fund for supporting us as we work with the city's most disadvantaged children, youth and families to prevent the spread of HIV by ensuring that New York City's most at-risk youth receive the necessary services and information needed to live safer and healthier lives. Your extraordinary generosity makes it possible for Safe Space to fulfill its mission: to protect kids, keep them safe and help them grow. THANK YOU!