Five years after the murder, Richard Holcomb and James Waterman founded Project Weber, a non-profit organization named to honor a man that they hardly knew. Themselves former prostitutes and recovering addicts, Holcomb and Waterman wanted to protect the state’s population of street-level male sex workers. Armed with a backpack full of supplies donated by AIDS Care Ocean State, they began with basic HIV prevention: passing out condoms, along with clean needles for the IV drug users. They walked the streets at night, visiting the clubs and bookstores where many of the hustlers conducted their business. They also drove hustlers who needed rides to rehab centers and 12-step meetings.

Holcomb and Waterman eventually went to the Rhode Island Department of Health, hoping that the state would be willing to help them minimize the spread of HIV among this high-risk population. In 2009, after a failed first attempt, they were able to secure state money for a needs assessment study focusing on Providence’s street-level male sex workers. (Street-level prostitutes are those who are solicited in public, frequently from cars or inside businesses like strip clubs or adult bookstores, which by their nature can’t discourage loitering.)