Inside her well-kept Rialto home, a laptop sits atop the dining room table.

Welcome to Green's office.

It is from here that Green works to spread knowledge about the dangers of substance abuse, HIV and AIDS -- particularly in the black community -- to her neighbors.

"We're starting here in San Bernardino County," said Green, 58, co-founder of the nonprofit group Brothers And Sisters In Action. "In five years we'd like to be everywhere."

On Feb. 7, Green and her co-founder, Linda Hart, hosted an educational workshop to mark National HIV and AIDS Awareness and Information Day.

AIDS now is the leading cause of death among black men 25 to 44 years old and kills more black women than cancer. According to a report issued recently by the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, black people account for 54 percent of new HIV cases reported each year.

The United States has had an estimated 928,000 AIDS cases as of 2003, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While about 13 percent of the nation's population is black, 40 percent of those diagnosed is black, or 368,000 people.

In San Bernardino County, about 9 percent of the population is black, but they make up 24.5 percent of AIDS cases and 28 percent of HIV diagnoses.

In Riverside County, 6 percent of the population is black, but has more than 12 percent of AIDS cases in addition to 6 percent of HIV cases.

For Green, who prepared 20 pounds of potato salad in addition the chicken and other lunch items she brought to the workshop, it's a subject that hits close to home.

Her 40-year-old son, who lives in Los Angeles, has been living with HIV for more than a decade. As a mother, she knows the heartache of having a child who's ill. As a former cocaine addict - clean now for 14 years - she knows what it is like to cause heartache for family and friends.

"I decided I wanted to give back," said Green, a motherly woman with neat black braids. "But I had something to come back to."

Family means a lot to Green, which is understandable. She has, after all, three sisters, four children, five grandchildren, eight nieces and nephews and often a houseful of other kids and friends who fall under the heading "extended family." She also has two foster children, ages 7 and 10, she took in from a sister-in-law.

Also important to Green is providing an example for friends and neighbors.

A former secretary and single mother, Green went back to school after she cleaned up her act.

She took classes at a paramedic college in Riverside and earned a degree as a substance abuse counselor. After working at a methadone clinic, a program for drug-addicted mothers and another program in the prison system, Green became convinced there was more she could do.

About a year ago she launched Brothers And Sisters along with Hart, a fellow counselor.

"No matter how far down you go, you can always look up," Green said. "People need to know that there's someone they can look up to who has had problems."

Far too many black people refuse to be tested for HIV and AIDS, she said. And because the stigma associated with the virus is so strong and people's fear of the illness so great, many who are tested won't bother to get the results.

"There's a lot of people don't even realize they have it," she said.

Marshare Penny, an epidemiologist with the San Bernardino County Public Health Department's AIDS program who presented statistics on the virus at the workshop, praised the work done by Green and Hart.

"It's definitely important," she said. "I think their agency is doing a great job of making sure they're educated first before they go out to do their work."

On Feb. 6, the night before the workshop, Green got a telephone call. It was from her son, with whom she hadn't spoken in at least six months.

The gulf that still exists between Green and her grown son, despite all her counseling skills, underscores an important point in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

"There's a lot more that we can do," she said.

Reach Gregor McGavin at (909) 806-3069 or gmcgavin@pe.com