Selma AIR held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new Black Belt Wellness (BBW) Center Monday on World AIDS Day.

The Black Belt Wellness (BBW) Center will be an extension of Selma AIR with the purpose of providing sexual wellness services that include HIV prevention resources, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) navigation, STI testing, counseling, and community-centered events related to holistic healthcare.

The other programs available at the BBW center include counseling, small group interventions, stress-reduction and mindfulness training and nutrition classes.

“The Black Belt Wellness Center provides comprehensive services and referrals to help meet the needs of people right where we are while encouraging new and better problem-solving behaviors that will improve our overall health,” BBW Director Lydia Chatmon said.

The BBW center, located at 104 Executive Park Lane, Suite A, was made possible by a $300,000 grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

“It is our job to do everything we can to educate, test, and provide comprehensive care for people so that in the future we will become an example of how to effectively reduce the threat of HIV and other illnesses we bear the burden of in the South,” Selma AIR Executive Director Mel Prince said.

BBW Center Clinical Counselor Dr. Stephan Mumbazo said counseling is an important of the BBW Center.

“How we show up to the rest of the world is very much related to how we feel and in order to truly impact the choices we think we have and decisions we ultimately make around sex, sexual partners, and our overall health, the Black Belt Wellness Center will continuously create the safe, inviting spaces necessary for our targeted communities to become whole,” Mumbazo said. “When we are ‘whole’ as individuals, it makes it easier to become more conscious, contributory members of society.”