A. Toni Young brings more than 25 years of experience in community mobilization, fiscal and personnel management and creating effective collaborative partnerships which meet the diverse needs of marginalized communities. In 1993, she founded NWAP, now Community Education Group (CEG) and has served as the Executive Director since its inception. Today, CEG continues to organize individuals and organizations at the grassroots level, empowering communities and building coalitions on issues associated with HIV/AIDS, women and the Black community.
Complementing her work at CEG, Toni has a long history of advocating for the coordination of services for women with HIV/AIDS and working with Black communities around HIV and other health issues in local, regional and national settings. As Community Co-chair for the San Francisco HIV Prevention Planning Council, she facilitated a group of 27 community and government representatives who were responsible for the allocation of more than $8 million in federal and state resources. Since her return to D.C. in 2003, Toni has served as the Chair of the D.C. HIV Prevention Planning Council, a vital role that allows her to coordinate efforts in this community.
Toni has also lent her expertise to numerous projects, including developing and presenting HIV/AIDS congressional testimony for the White House working group, and working with lead staff of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to develop the 1996 Ryan White application to states. She has also served on numerous federal panels and committees including the CDC Sterile Needle Committee, the CDC meeting on Woman to Woman transmission and the Ryan White Title I & II Review Committees. Toni has also successfully planned and executed three regional forums concerning Women and HIV/AIDS as it relates to women’s health for the National Women’s Health Network (NWHN).
Today, Toni is leading efforts at CEG to expand the reach of the organization. Through the HIV testing training program, CHAMPS, CEG now has over 30 outreach workers in the field, six days a week, using 8 mobile testing units to educate, test and link to care clients who are hardest to reach. As well, Toni has taken the lead in developing educational materials that are used throughout the country, and promoting replicable models for community development that she has tested and proven.
In addition, Ms. Young is in the process of replicating many of CEG’s HIV/HCV and PrEP education and testing programs in Appalachia; specifically in West Virginia. Appalachia and West Virginia is experiencing a spate of overdoses triggered by in many cases heroin laced with either fentanyl or carfentanil. The cocktail of heroin and counterfeit synthetics have led to a 364% in the overall rate of hepatitis among people in Appalachia.
An increase in the abuse of injectable drugs is one cause for hepatitis C infection rates to more than triple in four Appalachian states (one of them being West Virginia), according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). West Virginia leads the nation in overdose deaths on an almost yearly basis. Between 2011-2013 West Virginia’s numbers of overdose deaths per 100,000 residents increased by 54 percent compared to 2007-2009. West Virginia has the highest rate of fatal drug overdoses of any state and the highest rate of babies born dependent on opioids among the 28 states that report data.
CEG has developed a tablet-based enrollment tool for DC Alliance, Medicaid and Medicare, and also for HIV/AIDS, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, HEPc, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. This will build on the outreach CEG currently conducts and folds into the goals of the Affordable Care Act to increase utilization of preventative care rather than urgent care.
CEG has led efforts for the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day for the past 6 years and has developed community partners for the event across the United States. Currently, CEG is developing campaign materials for the first national Spokesperson, Ms. Vanessa Williams, in 2012 (2017?).