The biggest con that most sums up my experience is that the mission of "ending HIV in Black communities" is not at all what is happening here, and quite literally harm to Black communities, including the BAI employees, is happening in its stead. 12 of 15 people on the programs team have quit or been let go for unclear reasons in the last 6 months, the majority of whom had worked at BAI for under a year. There has always been a lack of support for employees, no onboarding for new employees, no advancement for current employees, no strategic plan, low salaries, a workload that is insurmountable for an organization to do without burning out or exploiting its employees, and misogyny, transphobia, and elitism abound.
Of course this mistreatment impacts the staff, but also unfortunately the community and BAI's program participants are bystanders to all of this. The clinical services were physically and psychologically unsafe. Two notable examples of the many include that one of the offices where HIV testing is done had a mouse and roach infestation, and at the clinic in predominantly Black South Central, some of the non-Black staff of BAI's partners on multiple occasions harassed and threatened to call the police on Black clients (and sometimes staff), to which BAI failed to respond to meaningfully. I really can't fathom why this organization still gets any attention that isn't negative-- there are just so many horror stories from so many people.
BAI was once an important institution, granted one with problems, but since August of 2021 it has taken a sadistic and sad turn. I do not believe that this organization can be redeemed if the there isn't an immediate shift in the spineless executive leadership. It's sad to see something that once offered something so meaningful and needed to Black communities offer nothing but harm, trauma, anti-blackness, and lies in its present iteration.
