Oscar De La O is president of Bienestar, a nonprofit community-based organization for Latinos in Southern California. Established in 1989, Bienestar specializes in providing health education and awareness on HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and drug prevention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Latinos. For more than 30 years, De La O has been working to serve more than just a community—he's been working to build a family.
How did you get involved with Bienestar?
I’ve been an advocate for Latinos affected by HIV and AIDS for over 28 years. My community involvement represents 37 years of service and advocacy for the Latino community. I make it a priority to hold true to my grassroots identity in my community work and interactions.
In the late ’80s, I volunteered with mainstream AIDS organizations. During that time, I saw a gap in services and a need to deliver HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs to the Spanish-speaking community.
During that time, I was also president of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), and during my presidency we formed an AIDS education committee to address this need. That committee eventually became Bienestar, focusing on HIV/AIDS through a lens of social justice. In 1994, I quit my day job and dedicated myself to Bienestar full-time.
What is the mission of Bienestar?
We’re a nonprofit social service organization dedicated to impacting the health and well-being of the Latino community and other underserved communities in Southern California. We use a peer-to-peer model that is 100 percent culturally relevant to its constituents.
We try to foster a sense of “familia” [or family]. The organization serves all segments of the Latino community with emphasis on the gay and transgender communities. We work to empower clients to participate through community mobilization and to become “agents of change,” thereby building awareness of critical issues, policies and legislation that require political action and funding.
Bienestar has 11 community centers strategically located in Los Angeles and Riverside, and in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, to reach the Latino population and link them to health and social services agencies.
What issues do your clients face?
There are several critical HIV cofactors that impact risk behaviors among our clients: methamphetamine use, the use of the Internet for anonymous sex or sex work, and homophobia. Layered on top of that are socio-cultural and economic factors that are specific to Latinos, including: depression, recent immigration, undocumented status, not knowing English, lack of employment skills and low self-esteem, among others.
To meet some of those community needs beyond HIV/AIDS, Bienestar has evolved into a multi-service, multi-center agency. Bienestar offers HIV prevention interventions; HIV counseling, testing and referrals services; case management; treatment adherence; peer support; housing case management; substance abuse prevention; drug rehabilitation, counseling and referrals; mental health therapy; food pantry; etc. Bienestar also provides social services to Latinos in the areas of STI [sexually transmitted infection] screening, smoking cessation, alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
How do you serve your clients?
Bienestar takes pride in hiring staff that reflects the population. The staff ensure that services are culturally sensitive and relevant through different strategies.
We’ve involved members of the population through the planning, implementation and monitoring of the proposed prevention services. We’ve built a bilingual and bicultural staff who themselves reflect the demographic and cultural characteristics of the target population.
What moments at Bienestar have made you proud?
I’m very proud of what Bienestar has been able to accomplish and the difference it has made in the lives of thousands of people. Bienestar has become the leading voice on Latino LGBT health and civil rights, as well as Southern California’s premiere Latino HIV services provider.
The agency began by opening storefront operations in the Hollywood/Silverlake area. As the epidemic began to shift to other areas of Los Angeles with large Latino populations, Bienestar responded by opening additional centers to provide prevention and support services.
Bienestar is now headquartered in the heart of the Latino community in East Los Angeles. This level of visibility represents a historic and remarkable accomplishment for an organization rooted in a population that was previously invisible to most Latinos.
What do you hope for the future of Bienestar?
We hope to have HIV/AIDS as normalized as other health issues to eliminate the stigma, silence and lack of access that in many ways contribute to the poor health outcomes of people living with HIV/AIDS.
We hope to enhance the level of awareness, education and skills within the at-risk HIV-negative communities [so they will] value their lives and have the self-empowerment and self-esteem to not engage in behaviors that put them at risk.
We hope for social justice and full civil rights for all individuals who are marginalized, disempowered and silenced in our society.
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