Our Guest today is Imani S. Latif from New York city. She has been in Colorado since 1994.
Imani is the founder of It Takes A Village, LLC
Her battle with addiction started when she was young. She always found love with the biggest drug dealers in the city. She was cooking her own freebase in her apartment and was a functioning addict with a job. She didn't mind it and was doing her thing; her family couldn't really tell her nothing because she was functioning. She got pregnant by her boyfriend at the time and at the ultrasound she was told her baby would be born without a brain, so she had to make a tough decision to let it go. The doctors told her she would never be able to have a baby. She decided that day that she would get clean. She saw her boyfriend get high and couldn't believe that's what she looked like when she was using.
Imani made the decision for herself to leave that boyfriend who gave her allowance paid rent on the apartment, all the amenities would be gone but she had to make the decision for herself to be better and get into a better situation. After that she met Hassan (her now husband) at her job where he was interviewing for a position. She asked him to hang out on new year's and they did. From there Hassan asked Imani to turn Muslim and they would get married, but it had to be on their terms. So, she finally converted and called Hassan to let him know the news. A lady answered the phone and Hassan had already married somebody else. (OUCH!) Couple of months later Imani met a man and had a child with him (her only child) which the doctors said would never be possible and was the biggest blessing she could have ever asked for. Soon after her job was paying people to relocate and was granting them funds based on how many years they worked in the company. Imani took it and moved her and her son to Colorado where Hassan was also. The rent was cheap in Colorado in 1994 and she had already been out here to visit Hassan before! Right as Imani showed up, she got a job within 3 weeks of moving because she doesn't like doing nothing being stagnant.
She now is an advocate for the HIV/AIDS/LGBTQ community she has been doing outreach for 40 years and has groups and meetings talking about safe sex, racism, jobs. Led by Arel Flynn, he is the biggest advocate in this community being one of the leaders of brothers forever. Listen to the rest of the story here.
Find It Takes A Village in Aurora, Colorado right on the 15-bus line off of Leema and Colfax
1475 Leema St Open 9-5 Mon-Thursday 9-3 on Fridays
Testing Available Now
Phone # 303-367-4747
Website: Ittakesavillagecolorado.org
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