Credit: Don Bon Photography

The Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National Health System was honored with the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award for outstanding service in HIV prevention by Us Helping Us, People Into Living, a community-based AIDS service organization committed to reducing HIV infection in the African American community on April 2, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

“We are so honored to receive the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award from our colleagues and friends, Us Helping Us, People Into Living,” said Dr. Lawrence D’Angelo, director of the Youth Pride Clinic and Burgess Clinics, a division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s National. “We have always considered Us Helping Us as an essential partner in this struggle and so it’s ingrained as a part of the community. It has been our honor to work with them, and an equal honor to be recognized in this way by them. We are so grateful and so proud!”

Dr. Lawrence D’Angelo and his team at the Burgess Clinic have cared for over 750 HIV infected youth, many who have gone on to live long and productive lives since the clinic opened its doors in 1988. The clinic started the Washington Area Consortium on HIV infection in Youth (WACHIVY) which later became MetroTeenAIDS Metro TeenAIDS, one of the largest and most successful prevention education programs for youth in the country. The Burgess Clinic is the home of over a dozen NIH and foundation grants that supported the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infected youth, accounting for over $55M in support.

“Receiving the Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. Award from Us Helping Us, People Into Living is an honor beyond anything we could have hoped for,” says Dr. D’Angelo. “Our programs were started at the same time to meet similar needs and for years we have worked together and appreciated each other’s efforts in serving our community. D.C. could not have attained the progress it has made in the struggle against HIV without Us Helping Us, People Into Living and knowing that makes this award all the more special.”

Us Helping Us, People Into Living was incorporated in 1988 as a support group for HIV-positive black gay men.