Illinois AIDS advocates expect to have difficult conversations with lawmakers in Springfield this week. Unless immediate actions are taken to remedy the state's spiraling budget crisis, vital HIV/AIDS services -- along with the state's educational, healthcare, and human service systems assisting millions of vulnerable children, families, disabled, elderly, and chronically ill individuals -- will...
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Five Illinois State Representatives today sent a letter to Governor Pat Quinn requesting $44.06 million in HIV funding in the FY 2011 state budget, an increase of $18 million. Reps. Harry Osterman (D-Chicago), Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), Deborah Graham (D-Chicago), Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) and Greg Harris (D-Chicago) are leading the funding request. READ MORE .
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Long-time AIDS advocate State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) convened on January 22, 2010 an Illinois House panel on the state’s HIV funding crisis. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and Illinois Public Health Association coordinated testimony.
If additional state funding is not identified next fiscal year, advocates told the panel, hundreds of low-income people with HIV may be...
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The state has a $26 billion budget this year. Next fiscal year, which begins in July, there will only $13 billion available. Without revenue reform, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) will be on the brink of collapse beginning in July, 2010. The challenges ahead are daunting, and the consequences are extraordinary for people with or at risk of HIV. Read more.. .
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It’s this simple: State operations cost $26 billion per year, but the state is projected to collect revenue totaling just $13 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2010. Unless lawmakers identify new revenue to close this colossal deficit, hundreds of people will lose life-saving HIV medications, thousands will be denied essential services, and tens of thousands will go without prevention...
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CHICAGO (October 21, 2009)—Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley proposed today a 12 percent reduction in city-funded public health services in Chicago’s 2010 budget. While HIV programs were largely spared, the Mayor’s plan recommends a 4 percent funding reduction for HIV services.
“Communities under siege because of the recession need public health services now more than ever,"...
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By Jim Pickett, Director of Public Policy
Hector fundraising on Michigan Ave. to attend the Campaign to End AIDS event in Washington, DC
In the time I have been doing HIV/AIDS advocacy work, I can honestly say I have never come...
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This week the HIV/AIDS community lost one of its longtime heroines, Beth Wehrman. Beth was an avid advocate for and provider of lifesaving harm reduction services for some of the most vulnerable in numerous communities in Illinois. Through her agency LifeGuard, Beth ensured that people who injected drugs in the Quad Cities and all the way down to Peoria, had the information and tools necessary...
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Illinois’ HIV/AIDS community suffered a sudden and tragic loss today as word came of the passing of longtime advocate and former Illinois General Assembly member Larry McKeon.
McKeon made history as the first openly gay member of the Illinois General Assembly and the first openly HIV positive legislator in Illinois.
On May 20, 2008, the House of Representatives held...
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The HIV Resource Coordination HUB (the HUB) is Chicago’s one-stop shop for comprehensive healthcare, regardless of HIV status.
Now approaching its third anniversary, the HUB is a community partnership between AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) and the Center on Halsted to expand access and reduce the friction of linkage to healthcare, housing, and support services in...
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