By Daily Press Staff
A westside organization that provides AIDS-related services opened a new center in Santa Monica Wednesday evening.
Common Ground — the Westside HIV Community Center opened a new facility at 2010 Lincoln Boulevard. To commemorate the opening, Ron Hanson, Deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, presented the group with a scroll.
The clinic will deliver case management and social services to men and women living with HIV/AIDS and provide life-saving prevention education and outreach to teens, street youth, gay youth, women, and other at-risk groups.
In 1992, in order to provide access to vital AIDS-related services on the westside, Common Ground was founded by a group of local citizens whose friends were too ill to travel the distance to the nearest service providers.
At that time, the westside also lacked in HIV-prevention education. In the ten years that followed, Common Ground has grown to become a well respected agency with a $900,000 budget.
Common ground annually provides services to 220 men and women and provides essential AIDS prevention education to over 6,000 teens and street youth.
For additional information about Common Ground, please call (310) 314-5480 or visit www.commongroundwestside.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 25, 2002. Read the original PDF.