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occurred with the formation of the Haitian Coalition of AIDS, which grew out of the organized
Haitian community in Brooklyn, but immediately sought educational resources from GMHC
which they translated into French and Creole. HCA’s connection to GMHC formed one of the
first interorganizational linkages out of which the network grew.
As the field expanded, many of the established groups seeded newer, more specialized
efforts whose goals could only really be understood and evaluated in light of their relationship to
others. The founders of numerous groups, including Community Health Project (CHP), the PWA
Health Group, and PWAC, had roots in The New York AIDS Network, and some of their
organizational preparation grew out of that forum. More explicitly, Body Positive was founded
by PWAC, and the Momentum Project grew out of a GMHC project, with active support from an
existing service network at St. Peter’s Church. Once PWAC had formed an organizational center
for the HIV/AIDS empowerment movement in New York City, most of the subsequent groups in
that area, including Friends in Deed and Body positive, developed in that space. Many more
organizational splits would occur during later stages of networking, as the larger multi-function
organizations such as ACT UP gave rise to various independent groups with specialized roles.
The growth and differentiation of the HIV/AIDS field was enabled by an increasing
number of participants and a wider resource base for the field overall; but it was driven by the
diversification of organized action and the constant redefinition of the needs of the community.
The first wave of activity had identified services and access to medical care as crucial areas for
community based intervention. As the next wave began, NPOs concerned mostly with the service
and treatment arms defined their missions more narrowly around those functions, while new
groups took on harm reduction and other outreach for intravenous drugs users, access to
Convention