ZINA AGE, MSW, MAC
President/CEO/Founder
Zina Age, a native of New Orleans is the President/ CEO /Founder of Aniz, Inc. a non-profit community base agency established in the state of Georgia & Louisiana to provide comprehensive health and awareness education and prevention services for disadvantaged minority youth, young adults and families, and to provide skills training organizations that implement disease prevention and health promotion programs.
In 1994-1996, Zina Age a graduate student of Clark Atlanta University School of Social Work was fulfilling her internship at Outreach, Inc. a community-based HIV/AIDS service agency located in Southwest Atlanta. Her major duties were to administer psychosocial assessments and to conduct family support groups with clients on a regular basis, not realizing that her heart was concerning the children of these clients.
During the internship period, Age began to observe the children on a daily basis. She observed the children of clients playing in the corner of the room where their parents were involved in-group. Unrecognized by the agency, the children were totally ignored for their unmet needs and therefore were unable to learn about HIV and it’s at risk factors as some of them were infected themselves.
In 1996-1997, after completing her internship, Zina Age was offered a full-time permanent job at Outreach, Inc. with similar responsibilities as during her internship. Her concern for the children continued to be a major burden until one day she confronted her desire to do something about the needs of these infected/affected children.
Age began to organize her thoughts and began to put things in perspective. She spoke with the Executive Director of the agency about the idea of implementing the children's program onsite. The idea was to involve the children of clients in structured therapeutic groups rather than having them idle and discontented at this adult serviced agency. This was the beginning of Zina Age's realization with infected/affected children.
With the support of friends and associates that specialized in the fields of substance abuse and mental health, Age obtained her 501 (c) (3) status of incorporation (1996). Her work with the children was enhanced by persistent work onsite at HIV adult serviced agencies by using volunteers comprising friends and associates.
As a devoted child advocate since 1989, Zina Age has provided direct services to children in a variety of case circumstances such as child abuse, children victimized by violent crimes, HIV infected/affected children, severely emotional disturbed children, children that abuse drugs, and juvenile delinquents, etc. However, the significance of Age's work with children has been through the avenues of working with adult persons.Living with the HIV/AIDS (PLWH).
Since 1987, Zina Age's interest with respect to the field of HIV/AIDS has increasingly grown and her efforts to serve PLWH are finally paying off.
Today, Age heads an innovative community-based agency known as Aniz, Inc. which is currently receiving federal funding to work with HIV infected/affected children, women & men with other co-occurring issues such as substance abuse and mental illness.
Since 1998 Aniz, Inc. has grown fruitfully and now has six major components:
1. WE WANT TO KNOW a prevention/risk reduction program for children;
2. AFLASH (Adolescent Females Learning About Surviving Healthy), a gender specific program for high risk teen females;
3. ROSHA (Reaching Out to Sisters with HIV/AIDS), a program designed for HIV infected women with co-occurring issues, and
4. SATCH (Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Affected/Infected with HIV) a after-care substance abuse program for men & women recently released from jail who are infected/affected with HIV and other co-occurring
5. Holistic Harm Reduction Program to intravenous drug users at high risk for HIV and Hepatitis C infection. The program is based on a Holistic Harm Reduction Model and has been funded by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals as well as private foundations.
In 2003, Ms. Age established the Aniz Baton Rouge Satellite office in Louisiana. In 2005, during the first six weeks after Katrina, Ms. Age under Aniz, Inc .operated out of the River Center working under the Louisiana State Office of Emergency Preparedness --through a contract with Baton Rouge General Hospital, to provide services to those impacted by the hurricane. As a member of the Emergency Preparedness team, Aniz, Inc. served as the liaison to coordinate the efforts of local agencies serving HIV sero-positive and opiate addicted individuals. Ms. Age continuously seeks ways to positively impact the lives of people around the world.
Over the past ten years, Zina Age has become a world traveler in which she has visited several cities in the Unites states and abroad including France, Spain, Japan, Jamaica and several African countries. Her collaboration with these sister countries has certainly produced a network of friends with cohorts in these foreign countries.
Born in St. Pedro, California Zina Age is the oldest of three children raised in a military family. Age attended John Ehert High School, where she was State Champion in 3 events and All-American for 3-years in Track and Field, which she received 35 scholarships. Age obtained a Bachelor of Science of Psychology in 1988 at Louisiana State University. From 1986 –1988 Age was on the NCAA National Championship for Track and Field, and also participated in participated in the 1988 United Stated Olympic Trials for Seoul Korea. Received her Masters of Social Work degree in 1996 from Clark Atlanta University, and a Masters Addiction Counselor (1997) through National Association of Forensic Counselors. |
