What is NJHDC?
The New Jersey Human Development Corporation (NJHDC) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It provides communities with knowledge, skills and services for the purpose of educating individuals for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. It was formed to coordinate the work of Project FAITH and, subsequently, Project Rebuild.
NJHDC, in recent years, has grown into a truly interdenominational and interfaith initiative, serving hundreds of churches and houses of worship in New Jersey. NJHDC provides leadership to its Projects FAITH, Rebuild and the faith communities to coordinate the following campaigns in New Jersey:
• National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (February)
• Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS (March)
• Annual HIV Testing Awareness Day (June)
• World AIDS Day (December)
• The “I Stand With Magic” HIV/AIDS Campaign
At the Sixth Annual HIV/AIDS Testing Awareness Day at a site in Trenton, New Jersey, the Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine, the Mayor of Trenton, Douglas H. Palmer, and the State Health Commissioner, Fred M. Jacobs, addressed the audience. They stressed clean needles for drug abusers and getting tested regularly using the new rapid-result tests. But, AIDS activist Jamie M. Bracey said that she is no longer interested in talking about prevention. “The African American community has to raise the bar and demand a cure.” Bishop Richard Franklin Norris, Presiding Prelate of the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, urged the audience to do whatever they can to inform and educate their communities about AIDS. He said that a diagnosis of AIDS is not the “immediate death sentence” it once was, but people need to hear about it, even from the pulpit.
Where did NJHDC come from?
NJHDC grew out of Project FAITH, which was initiated by the New Jersey Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the vision of its founder, former Presiding Elder Reverend Archie L. Richmond. His identification of HIV as a major challenge confronting the lives of African American communities was the catalyst for the movement that was to become Project FAITH.
In 1994, Project FAITH conducted its first formal HIV training sessions and in 1998 received its first HIV prevention health service grant from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Today, NJHDC continues to be funded by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Division of HIV/AIDS.
Project Rebuild was organized and funded in 2001.