Community Story
Ken Holland
Ken Holland came to Housing Works in 2006, looking for an anchor. “I was beginning to feel the despair of HIV, and I needed to not be lost,” he said.
Thanks to Housing Works’ Job Training Program (JTP), Holland is feeling more grounded than ever. On May 19, Holland and half a dozen other Housing Works clients graduated from the program’s pre-vocational phase at a moving ceremony at St. Augustine’s Church on the Lower East Side. JTP is an intensive year-long course that will help Holland build work skills and guarantee him a full-time job upon completion. Since 1993, a total of 273 Housing Works clients have graduated from the program.
As part of JTP, Holland will work for nine months in the kitchen at Housing Works’ E. 9th Street West Village Health Center. A pastor in Harlem for many years, Holland hopes to eventually join Housing Works’ advocacy team. He’ll get started this summer when he heads to Vienna as a Housing Works delegate to the XVIII International AIDS Conference.
“I’m kind of a firebrand for Housing Works,” Holland said. “After being HIV-positive for 21 years and still being healthy, I feel, ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ “
