The year is 1986. The movie Top Gun has just been released, Nintendo games are being played for the first time across the US, and the number one song is “That’s What Friends Are For,” a supergroup hit by Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder, specifically written and produced to raise money for AIDS.

In Greensboro, fourteen friends gather around a kitchen table. Their loved ones are dying of AIDS, alone and scared. They pool their resources, connect the community and Triad Health Project is born. Forty years later, the scrappy little agency they built has transformed into one of the largest HIV service and prevention community-based organizations in North Carolina.

In the last 40 years, many things have changed at Triad Health Project. We’ve changed locations, added staff, prevention testing, telehealth services, and soon we’ll add a mobile unit. What hasn’t changed is the heart of our mission—sexual health and justice. And that scrappiness.

As we go into our 40th year, we’re celebrating a powerful legacy of Love for our community. We’re also acknowledging that this Love comes at a cost. HIV service organizations across the state and across the nation are closing their doors as the communities we serve are being further marginalized, further defunded, further othered. We must advocate for continued funding. We must encourage those who can give to give. We must be bold to break down stigma. We must be scrappy. As we step into 2026, we invite you to join us in celebrating 40 Years of Love at Triad Health Project. Together, with a lot of heart and a little scrap, we can create a Future Free from HIV!

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