Our Story
An effort to educate and mobilize the Baton Rouge community to address HIV/AIDS began in the late eighties. Dr. James Hines, III was a resident at Tulane University working on his Master’s Degree in Public Health. His focus was on community health. He encouraged the State to allow him to develop and bring an HIV prevention program to Baton Rouge to start HIV/AIDS prevention activities in the community. Dr. Hines then met with the late Larry B. Griffin, who was the Executive Director of South Baton Rouge Community Development Association, Inc. (SBRCDA), which was housed in the Dr. Leo S. Butler Community Center. The program was named South Baton Rouge Health Education, under SBRCDA, Inc. and was the first agency to address HIV prevention and testing in Baton Rouge. The agency staff was very instrumental in assisting with the development of Friends for Life which is no longer in service. Friends for Life was the first agency to offer services and support in the Baton Rouge community for HIV positive clients. SBRCDA closed in 1991. South Baton Rouge Health Education’s HIV/AIDS component was very successful and the State wanted to continue the prevention activities that the program started with HIV.
The late Mr. Melvin Aaron, former Program Director of the Health Education Program, recruited Shirley Lolis (former Health Educator) and they signed individual contracts with the State to continue the prevention activities in the community. In 1990, Mr. Aaron and Ms. Lolis co-founded and developed Metro Health under the Baton Rouge Black Alcoholism Council, where Mr. William Jackson was board president and Mr. Aaron was a board member. Metro worked diligently to build community relationships and recruit partners. In 1992, BRBAC’s Metro Health worked with the Office of Public Health to develop and expand HAART (HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region II) which is now the largest agency in Baton Rouge providing medical/treatment, case management, housing, and other support services for HIV positive clients. Today, BRBAC’s Metro Health is the largest prevention agency in Baton Rouge. Metro Health also provides case management and support services for clients who are HIV positive and/or have a sexually transmitted infection.
