HISTORY:

The SMART Ride began in 2003 with a vision of giving back 100% of every participant dollar raised to AIDS service organizations throughout Florida. After 20 years of realizing this vision, The SMART Ride decided to pass this challenge to the agencies themselves. The Joy Ride is the agencies answer to that call. The Joy Ride is a collaboration of the benefitting agencies who continue with the vision of 100% of all participant dollars raised going direct to the agencies providing services to clients throughout Florida.

OUR MISSION:

The Joy Ride is committed to creating, producing, and overseeing community-based events in which 100% of what the participant raises is returned to benefiting non-profit organizations. In so doing, we act as an avenue for change in the non-profit fundraising community. Through the production of events, we will assemble and sustain a group of thoughtful, committed citizens to build relationships and raise funds to positively affect the lives of people, whom the citizens may have never met, and in so doing reach beyond the limits of what they thought they could do as an individual.

The Joy Ride aspires to a world where we end viruses such as AIDS/HIV and a world where marginalized communities are empowered and have all the resources necessary to live productive, healthy, safe, joyful, and affirming lives.

WHO WE ARE: The Agencies

Broward House for over 30 years Broward House has provided housing as the cornerstone of healing for those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. Broward House recognizes that individuals are more able to accept services and adhere to health care in a safe environment in which a variety of needs are addressed which lead to expanding services to include prevention, education, case management, collaborative medical care, mental health, and substance abuse treatment. A range of vital housing services remains at the core of Broward House's mission including 72 community-based residential units, 74 beds at our Assisted Living and Substance Abuse treatment facility and 114 clients and families living independently with tenant-based residential vouchers in the community. Our programs are designed to work in partnership with our clients on their paths to self-sufficiency.

EPIC (Empath Partners in Care) is a member of Empath Health, a nonprofit integrated network of care supporting those challenged by chronic and advanced illness in the Tampa Bay region. EPIC's purpose is to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities, regardless of HIV status, gender or sexual identity, by addressing the social determinants of health. EPIC offers medical case management, mental health counseling, psychiatric medication management, nutritional support, support groups, permanent and rapid re-housing, short term rent, mortgage and utility assistance, transportation assistance, primary care, pharmacy services and a wide variety of HIV prevention services. We aim to provide seamless care and support that helps our clients stay healthy, housed and in care. We also provide HIV/STI testing and education in our clinics and in the community, support for LGBTQ elders, and assistance for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness.

Pridelines is Miami-Dade County's LGBTQ Community Center and South Florida's oldest LGBTQ direct service agency. Their mission is to support, educate, and empower South Florida's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and community in safe and diverse spaces to promote dialogue, wellness, and to foster social change. Pridelines was founded by gay and bisexual youth for LGBTQ youth in the wake of Anita Bryant's Save Our Children campaign. Rooted in a peer-led/adult-facilitated youth group model, the group began meeting at Miami-Dade College in 1982 and was formerly known as Pridelines Youth Services. Today, the agency has matured just like the youth they serve. In 2015, the organization shortened its name to Pridelines to reflect its ongoing commitment to supporting the lives of all members of South Florida's LGBTQ community. Pridelines provides Health Programs and Services for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, Youth Programs and Services for youth and young adults ages 14 to 24, Programs and Services for Homeless Youth who are 18 to 24 and at-risk of or currently experiencing homelessness, and Community Engagement Opportunities for members of the LGBTQ community and their allies, regardless of age.

Miracle of Love Inc. is the oldest and largest non-profit AIDS Service Organization (ASO) for communities of color in Central Florida. Miracle of Love's founder, Lowell D. Stafford, began providing care services to multicultural communities in 1991 with the use of volunteers and funded partly by his own Social Security checks. The organization was not incorporated until 1997, and in 1998 received its first federal grant award. MOL's mission is to provide comprehensive, multicultural HIV/AIDS care, education and prevention services that are effective and responsive to the Central Florida communities. Miracle of Love, Inc. services are designed to promote HIV/AIDS prevention and care services for people living with HIV/AIDS in order for them achieve positive medical outcomes by keeping them in care and treatment programs. With over 25 years of outstanding service, Miracle of Love, Inc. continues to serve as a resource for education, support, medical and non-medical case management, housing case management, community advocacy, confidential HIV/ STI screening, and linkage to care.

Compass Community Center aims to diminish stereotypes by challenging long-standing misconceptions about the character of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. We accomplish this by emboldening our youth, promoting pride in our community, and acting as an educator, advocate, health service provider, and focal point for community organizing. As good neighbors, effective partners, and respected participants in our civic responsibilities, Compass promotes awareness of the caring nature of our diverse community. With nearly three decades in #HIV/AIDS direct services, Compass has on-site HIV case management services to connect newly diagnosed people to care and continues its tradition as an expert in HIV prevention activities in partnership with the Florida State Department of Health.