Golden Rule Services
Over 24 Years of History
Golden Rule Services (GRS) was founded in January 2000 in response to ongoing health and racial inequities experienced by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities in Sacramento County. In August 2000, GRS expanded its programmatic focus from juvenile justice to HIV prevention for local African American gay and bisexual men. In 2001, GRS conducted Sacramento County’s first and only African American gay men’s needs assessment to learn what GRS could do to address the disproportionate rates of HIV in this population. That same year, with the needs assessment findings, GRS developed and piloted Sacramento County’s first African American gay men’s HIV prevention project called the “Men’s Soul Food Project.” Since the pilot, GRS has evolved into an established HIV/STI and HCV prevention and care program, providing a variety of free, award-winning, high-impact, culturally competent HIV/AIDS and STI education, prevention, testing, and care services. These services include rapid HIV and HCV testing, 3-site STI screenings, PrEP and DoxyPEP navigation services, street outreach, social media HIV/STI/HCV prevention, outreach to people experiencing homelessness, condom distribution, and non-medical case management for those living with HIV. GRS also operates a mobile testing unit that brings services directly to the priority populations we serve.
Our HIV, STI, and HCV outreach, education, testing, and care services continue to align with the priority populations and best strategies outlined in the 2022-2025 National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the 2022-2025 California State Office of AIDS “Ending the Epidemics” HIV, HCV, and STI Integrated Plan. These strategies aim to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to care for people living with HIV, reduce HIV-related health disparities, and end the HIV and STD epidemics in Sacramento County. On Nov. 17, 2020, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors declared racism a public health crisis, and on January 20, 2021, The White House announced its “Executive Order 11246 on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” Golden Rule Services is proud to have made health and racial equity our highest priorities since January 2000. BIPOC lives have ALWAYS mattered at Golden Rule Services. GRS has been presented with several California State Assembly resolutions for our 25-year commitment to ending the HIV, STI, and HCV syndemics in Sacramento County.
Founder of Golden Rule Services
Our Mission
The mission of Golden Rule Services is to resolve health, education, employment and criminal justice disparities within BIPOC communities through the provision of culturally competent programs and resources.
Vision Statement
Attainment of optimum health, educational and employment of all BIPOC communities.
Strategic Intent
As infrastructure is built in one community of color, we will expand into other communities of color where the needs are greatest, integrating programs as we expand. By 2026, we will be the premier minority based, multi-service nonprofit organization in Sacramento, California with a strong reputation of providing a variety of accessible, affordable and research programs to BIPOC communities.
Agency Philosophy
Services are most effective when they are culturally competent, age appropriate, research based and are accessible, affordable and comprehensive.
Agency Motto
“Treat others that way you want to be treated, but even BETTER.”
Agency Credibility and Capacity
Golden Rule Services (GRS) is recognized as a key informant and gatekeeper in Sacramento County’s BIPOC communities. GRS has conducted focus groups, needs assessments, social marketing planning, adapted effective behavioral interventions (EBIs), and created three homegrown HIV interventions focused on African American MSM, Hispanic/Latinx MSM, and African American men who inject drugs. GRS is credited with initiating some of the most innovative HIV education and prevention strategies, including conducting gay bar outreach, focused HIV testing in bars, tabling at private gay MSM dance and sex parties, and HIV prevention in online and telephone gay “hook-up” chat rooms. GRS created Sacramento County’s first African American gay men’s HIV prevention project (Men’s Soul Food Project), African American men’s HCV prevention project (BOOTSTRAP), women of color transgender HIV prevention project (Magdala Project), and Latinx gay men’s HIV prevention project (Entre Hombres). GRS is also credited with providing HIV education that led to the cancellation of several HIV seroconversion parties. Additionally, GRS has conducted community-wide HIV prevention events, including the annual “National HIV Testing Day” (recently partnered with Greater Than AIDS/Walgreens) and “National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.” GRS has collaborated with other HIV/AIDS service organizations to conduct focused rapid HIV testing at “World AIDS Day,” “Rainbow Festival,” and “Sacramento Pride.”
As a result of our success, GRS has successfully secured and implemented multi-year subcontracts through the Sacramento County Department of Health Services (SCDHS) to conduct a variety of peer-based, culturally competent, high-impact HIV, STI, and HCV education, prevention, testing, outreach, and social marketing interventions since 2001. Our commitment to BIPOC health and racial equity, along with our trailblazing interventions, has earned GRS numerous awards and acknowledgments. In 2006, GRS received a California State Assembly resolution recognizing its role in establishing National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in California. In 2017, Mr. Sullivan received a CA State Assembly resolution commemorating his 30 years of work in fighting HIV/AIDS in People of Color communities. In 2018, Mr. Sullivan received the prestigious “Cleve Jones HIV-AIDS Leadership Award” from the International Court System, the second-largest LGBT organization in the world. In 2019, GRS received the “Heroes in Community Service” award from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. In 2022, Mr. Sullivan received one of the prestigious “50 Emperors of Distinction” Awards presented by the International Court System and was inducted into the Marquis Who’s Who in America. Most recently, Mr. Sullivan was honored as Grand Marshal of the 2023 Sacramento Pride Parade and Festival. GRS also received the prestigious “Legacy of Excellence” award at the 34th Annual Sacramento Black History Month Expo Legacy Awards Gala and the 2024 “Business in Excellence” award from the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce.
Golden Rule Services board members and staff continue to provide technical assistance to the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services’ HIV/STD Program and other HIV service providers. GRS staff serve on various planning bodies, including the Sacramento Getting to Zero Coalition, the Sacramento Workgroup to Improve Sexual Health (SACWISH) Collaborative, the Sacramento County HIV Health Services Planning Council, and the California Department of Public Health Office of AIDS Community Planning Group.
Our Approach
Our programs are developed with evidenced-based and “best practice” research. In compliance with national guidelines, we use epidemiology, program evaluation, behavioral science theories, and methodologies in the development of our programs. We are ensure that all of our programs are developed to address the social determinants of health of our clients. Lastly, also incorporate good old fashion tender loving care which our clients have come to love and appreciate.
In accordance to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National AIDS Strategy and High-Impact Prevention approach, the specific program’s purpose is to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV, reduce HIV-related health disparities, and to implement cost-effective interventions in the geographic areas hardest hit by HIV and among the most severely infected and affected local target audiences.
In compliance with the CDC’s current “High-Impact Prevention” approach, GRS is implementing programs and services among the most severely infected and affected target populations in Sacramento including People of Color (BIPOC), women, men who have sex with men, sex industry workers, transgenders, injection drug users and stimulant users and people living with HIV/AIDS.
GRS respectfully works to not replicate and duplicate serving the same target populations of other local HIV/AIDS service providers. GRS is known and respected for filling HIV/AIDS prevention gaps that other local HIV/AIDS service providers have not addressed. Our HIV/AIDS prevention services were created “by” and “for” the target populations we serve. All of our home grown HIV interventions were designed with feedback from local target audience focus groups and key informant interviews including the Men’s Soul Food Project, the Son-Shine Project, the Kalifia Project, the BOOTSTRAP project, the Entre Hombres Project and Lambda Lounge.
Target Populations
Golden Rule Services (GRS) serves a diverse range of priority populations, including BIPOC communities—particularly Black/African American, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals—young people (ages 15-29), gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men. Additionally, GRS provides services to transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, people who use drugs (including those who inject drugs), people experiencing homelessness, those who are or have been incarcerated, individuals who exchange sex for resources, people who can become pregnant, and migrant and immigrant communities, including those who are undocumented. GRS remains committed to supporting other populations not specifically identified as priorities.
In 2023, 72.6% of GRS clients were people of color, with 35.3% identifying as Latinx, 21.1% as African American, and 27.4% as Caucasian. Most clients were cisgender males (83.1%), and a significant portion were men who have sex with men (57.5%). Clients’ ages ranged from 12 to over 65, with 25.2% in the 25-34 age group. 38% of GRS clients were on Medi-Cal, 30% on Medicaid, and 2% had private insurance. The majority of GRS’s clients reside in Sacramento County, particularly in the zip codes 95823, 95828, and 95832.