AIDS Survival Project is shutting its doors after 20 years of serving people with HIV in Atlanta.

The closing of the agency will take place in two parts, according to Southern Voice. Most services will end by Dec. 31, while ASP’s Counseling, Testing & Referral Center will remain operational until June 2009.

“Our agency is uniquely structured to assure governance and organizational direction-setting by HIV-positive peers,” Bill Golden, president of AIDS Survival Project’s board, said in the press statement. “We have carefully maintained that commitment to peer-driven services through peer-based service models, including education-advocacy-support. Still, with shifts in funding that reflect service delivery by other types of organizations, we feel we have been good stewards of ASP’s mission.”

ASP Executive Director Melanie Sovine, who was hired in 2006, acknowledged in a statement that ASP’s closure is due to “flagging funding,” but said the services the agency currently provides are also available at other agencies.