Aliveness Project expands services to help Rainbow Health's former clients

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - As a woman living with HIV for 34 years, Cindy Durant relied on Rainbow Health for food vouchers and help paying rent and utilities.

Now she'll have to find another source of support after the non-profit suddenly closed.

"I was kind of shocked and numb because I was dumbfounded about it. My first thoughts were who is going to do what? What's going to happen now," Durant told FOX 9.

Nearly two weeks ago, Rainbow Health announced it would cease operations, leaving thousands of Minnesotans living with HIV up in the air.

The Minnesota Department Of Human Services says Rainbow Health's contract responsibilities have been transferred to The Aliveness Project to help fill the gap in HIV support services.

"We are building this plane while we are flying it. We don't have a playbook on how this should happen," said Matt Toburen, The Aliveness Project's Executive Director.

In addition to sending out checks to help 90 former Rainbow Health clients with rent and utility assistance, the Aliveness Project says it's top priorities will be helping about 450 former Rainbow clients manage their medical appointments and transportation and reestablishing the AIDSLINE, a resource line that answers community questions about HIV.

"If you are a client of Rainbow, there is help on the way. I don't want you to be afraid these programs are going away. There's a lot of work happening to make sure the services you rely on will continue in some shape or form," said Toburen.

Durant is just grateful with Rainbow Health gone that she'll have somewhere else to turn for help.

"It’s still really sad it happened the way it did, and it’s really, really sad that the community wasn't informed there was anything going on," said Durant.