• Preventive Education,
• HIV Testing, and
• Support of persons living with HIV who are patients of The 1917 Clinic.

"We are refocusing our energy on our roots of caring for persons living with HIV and trying to help other persons from becoming infected in the first place," says Malcolm Marler, D.Min., Director of The Support Team Network and Chaplain at The 1917 Clinic at UAB. "We want to make a significant difference in the challenge of AIDS in our own community, as well as an impact on the global pandemic. People are living longer with HIV disease and need a greater variety of types of support than ever before."

The 1917 Clinic at UAB has approximately 1500 patients living with HIV who are presently treated at the clinic and the numbers grow daily. On average the Clinic has ten new patients scheduled every week, almost 500 per year. It is estimated that one in every three hundred persons living in the U.S. have HIV disease, however most do not know it because they have never been tested.

The Support Team Network is a program of The 1917 Clinic at UAB (the AIDS Outpatient Treatment and Research Clinic) since it began in 1994.

Since 2000, the program expanded to teach others how to develop Support Teams for any health-related need. The Network Staff (and Consultants) led more than 100 2-day Support Team Development Trainings in 30 states involving approximately 3,000 training participants. It is estimated that over 2000 Teams were developed serving 4,000-5,000 individuals and families.

We are aware that many communities will still want to host Support Team Development Trainings even though the Support Team Network Staff will be focusing on HIV/AIDS. 

The Support Team Network and Project Compassion (Chapel Hill, NC) will partner together to continue offering trainings throughout the United States.  More information may be found here.

Please re-visit this website for further updates, or contact Malcolm Lewis Marler, D.Min. at mmarler@uab.edu or 866-435-1391.