Mission, Vision & Values

Mission

CHLP is an abolitionist legal and policy organization fighting to end stigma, discrimination, and violence toward communities that experience racial oppression, patriarchal violence, and/or economic divestment. We center our work in communities of people living with and deeply affected by HIV and other stigmatized health conditions, especially Black, brown, trans and/or queer, women, femmes, people who engage in sex work, use drugs, are disabled, living with stigmatized diseases, without housing, and/or are currently or formerly incarcerated. All of our work is firmly located within the larger abolitionist movement for real safety and liberation. 

CHLP utilizes legal advocacy, high-impact policy and research initiatives, and the creation of multi-issue partnerships, networks, and resources to support our communities in this work. We operate within and around criminal legal and public health systems at the state and federal level to craft just policies that amplify the power of mobilizations for systemic change that are guided by racial, gender, and economic justice. We collaborate with people living with HIV, organizers and base builders, direct service providers, and national organizations to identify, create, and share expertly crafted, intersectional legal and policy resources and advocacy strategies.

Vision

CHLP envisions and fights for a world where people living with HIV and other stigmatized health conditions are met with compassion and the resources and tools to thrive and our communities experience support and investment. We envision a world free from state violence, where people are not dehumanized and punished for their real or perceived health status and/or identities, and where health conditions are not met with criminalization, surveillance, and other punitive responses. 

Values

We emphatically reject any policy, strategy, or practice that leaves any of us behind, especially those most marginalized by systemic oppression, including Black, brown, trans and/or queer people, women, femmes, people who engage in sex work, use drugs, are disabled, living with stigmatized diseases, without housing, and/or are currently or formerly incarcerated.

We value abolition as not only a viable political framework that deeply informs our work but as an organizing and advocacy strategy that we manifest every day.

We do our work at the speed of trust and care (for ourselves, our work, and our communities), and not out of urgency.

We value our ancestors and elders whose courageous struggles for liberation, justice, and visibility have made our contemporary struggles possible and necessary.

We reject ahistorical and apolitical frameworks of movements that leave out the grassroots and radical labor that laid the groundwork for our policy and advocacy work.  

We work with our communities most affected by systemic oppression to actualize and build more power to mobilize against the systems and institutions that target them.

We value the accessibility and transparency of our analysis and our work. The tools and resources we use to liberate ourselves should never be gatekept and must be fully accessible.

Knowings and Beliefs That Inform Our Values

We believe in powerful and leaderful movements, one where people living with HIV define their own experiences. It is not our role to empower–as one’s inherent power is not something we can give or take–rather we amplify and support this power. We oppose power-hoarding and power-over and are instead committed to practicing accountable power-holding and power-sharing.

We know people have intersecting and multiple identities and are often required to fragment themselves for the sake of “progress.” We believe everyone should be able to bring their full selves and full experiences to this work.

We know that those most affected by systemic oppression and state violence know best what needs to happen and it is our job to support and anchor this work. There is no room for saviors.

We recognize that our work reflects and responds to urgent realities that gravely impact our communities every day.  

We believe in community input, collaboration and/or involvement through all stages of our work.