The Shanti Project is a non-profit human services agency based in San Francisco and founded in 1974 by Dr. Charles Garfield in Berkeley, CA.
[1] Its goals are to provide peer support and guidance to people affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening conditions.
In December 1981, director Jim Geary and Steve Peskind, co-founder of the Buddhist AIDS Project, started the first known Kaposi’s Sarcoma support group.
This work led to the formation of the movement and groups such as ACT-UP and the People with AIDS Coalition.
[1]Helen Schietinger, nurse coordinator of an AIDS clinic at the University of San Francisco, was the Shanti Project's first residence program director.