Join the rustin institute for aids walk 2026

Walking Together Across Generations to Fight HIV AIDS

Last year, the LGBTQ+ Institute community helped raise nearly $25,000 to support intergenerational youth programming that raises awareness about HIV, combats stigma, and empowers young people to become advocates for health, justice, and human dignity.

This year, as the newly independent Rustin Institute for Leadership Development, we're setting our sights even higher: $85,000 by September 26th.

Why? Because the work remains urgent.

Georgia continues to be one of the states most impacted by HIV, with young people—particularly Black and LGBTQ+ youth—experiencing disproportionate rates of new diagnoses. Stigma, misinformation, and barriers to healthcare still prevent too many young people from accessing the support they need. At the same time, we know that when generations come together to share stories, knowledge, and hope, lives are changed.

That belief is at the heart of the Rustin Institute's mission. We know that leadership is not passed down through lectures alone. It is cultivated through relationships, mentorship, and community. It is built when elders share wisdom, when young people raise their voices, and when all of us commit to leaving a healthier, more just world than the one we inherited.

This year's AIDS Walk campaign is especially meaningful because it honors the leadership and resilience of our Executive Director, Tim'm West, who has been living—and thriving—with HIV since 1998. For nearly three decades, Tim'm has transformed personal experience into public service, helping thousands of young people discover their own capacity to lead, advocate, and create change.

Bayard Rustin reminded us:

"We are all one—and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way."

The fight against HIV has always been a story of people showing up for one another across differences of age, race, sexuality, and circumstance. It is a story of chosen family, shared responsibility, and collective action.

When you support the Rustin Institute's AIDS Walk team, you are investing in a future where young people have access to accurate information, affirming community, courageous mentors, and opportunities to lead. You are helping us build the kind of intergenerational movement Bayard Rustin envisioned—one rooted in justice, dignity, and the belief that none of us gets free alone.

Join us. Walk with us. Give what you can. Together, let's raise $85,000 and prove that when generations come together for a common cause, we are capable of extraordinary things.

For Tim'm, for the young people we serve, for those we've lost, and for those who deserve the chance to thrive, we're walking forward—together.