Children Of Parent With AIDS/Guiding Light is a 501(c) 3 transitional services and permanency-planning organization founded in 1995 by Linda L. Fleming, who recruited a diverse group of concerned community activists throughout New York's Harlem community. These individuals were increasingly dismayed by the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially its disproportionate effect on African-American women and children.
On too many occasions, they had been witness to the guilt and despair of parents living with HIV/AIDS and the wrenching emotional trauma experienced by young children orphaned by AIDS, only to have the trauma exacerbated by the sudden and impersonal dislocation imposed by the child welfare system.
COPWA was born from this reality and from a vision that recognized a viable alternative to these tragic circumstances. It is a vision based on compassionate, coordinated, community-based early permanency planning designed to assure parents facing premature death by linking them with families desirous and capable of providing caring and nurturing home environments for their children.