AFC staff and community partners gather for the 2012 Annual Meeting.

Immense health care changes are coming, regardless of who wins tomorrow’s election. But we will confront these new realities with hope, purpose and a plan.

Such was the collective feeling Thursday night at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s Annual Meeting at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center. Close to 200 people — medical professional, case managers, people living with HIV, sponsors and others involved in Chicago’s HIV sector — were on hand to reflect on some of the past year’s accomplishments and look ahead to 2013.

As the Northeast continues to reel from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, communities are now turning their efforts towards clean up and relief.

Natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable among us, including people living with HIV/AIDS, making the restoration of vital human services and the institutions that provide them the most urgent priority of the relief effort.

Here are three ways you can help:

1. Donate to the Bailey-Holt House Emergency Fund to help Bailey House repair an AIDS housing facility damaged by Sandy.

2.Donate to the American Red Cross.

3. Donate, volunteer or locate shelters at Occupy Sandy Relief, a coordinated relief effort to help distribute resources and volunteers to help neighborhoods and people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

For people in the New York area, information for people living with HIV/AIDS and methadone patients coping with Hurricane Sandy is available on VOCAL-NY's website.

Photo by Julia Xanthos/Daily News

Iliana Gilliland never planned to move to Chicago.

Bombings and the constant threat of political violence made the choice for her.

Gilliland’s path has led her from the dangers of drug violence in Colombia to a long career in the HIV case management field. She fell into her career almost by happenstance but has stuck with it for 20 years out of a passion forged from the early painful losses of clients in the 1990s and the progress she’s seen since.

Today, Gilliland trains case managers in the Northeastern Illinois HIV/AIDS Cooperative, managed by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), which oversees case management for more than 5,000 people per year who are living with HIV in the Chicago area and collar counties. Her daily goal is to make sure all clients receive the same quality of case management, regardless of what neighborhood they live in.