AIDS Care Group

In 1998, the agency was at first able to utilize its own small clinical facility. As the programs expanded the agency rented space from its neighbor, Catholic Social Services. As these spaces grew insufficient, the agency found and purchased in December 2005 a building in need of significant repair, but ideally sized and located for its many successful and supportive programs.Formerly the rectory of St. Michael’s Parish, this once grand structure is located in the center of Chester’s business district. It is a 100 year old granite building, three stories in height with a full basement, and on a beautiful lot of ground. It is within walking distance to many of the city’s most economically stressed neighborhoods. It is the ideal structure that would benefit from a complete interior renovation.

St. Michael’s House is the new name for the structure formally known as St. Michael’s Rectory. It is a strategic structure that will help the agency to address social services and housing opportunities for its clients. The rectory, once part of a triad of buildings belonging to St. Michael’s Parish, is now a singular, non-denominational building. The building will be entirely converted, including seven apartments for women on the upper two floors; and at entry level and in the basement, a new and expanded kitchen, Drop-in-Center, and community rooms capable of expanding the food and activity programs and counseling divisions of the agency. Throughout the building the art of patients and regional artists will be on constant display.

Included in the strategic plan of the agency is the need to address the continuing stigma of AIDS in the community of Chester; to honor and not just bury the dead; and to find ways to improve the communication between patients, their families, and their neighbors. The AIDS Care Group proposes to address these needs by incorporating into the renovation project an AIDS memorial. Working with the existing grotto on the front lawn of the rectory, this monument of the facility will become a large and abiding memorial, the AIDS Memorial of Chester, which will speak for years to come of a city that can show consolation to even its most disenfranchised citizens.

The AIDS Care Group has committed $101,000 to the purchase of the St. Michael’s Rectory. In August 2006 the non-profit Design Collaborative of the American Institute of Architects completed a conceptual design for the rectory and donated the services to the AIDS Care Group. Additional funding totaling $275,000 has been estimated as required to complete the entire interior renovation including the seven new 2nd and 3rd floor apartments and the first floor community spaces.

The AIDS Care Group, through its new facility, will see increased client-centered programs; will provide seven new clean, safe and affordable permanent housing units for women living with HIV/AIDS; will have a community resource center for the display of art and the incorporation of art into the daily activities of patients; and will provide these services in a building that will be known for its contribution to the health and social services for the City of Chester and its residents living with HIV/AIDS.