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Senators Villivalam and Villanueva commend Illinois Senate for passage of the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act

May 21, 2021

SPRINGFIELD, IL -- Today, the Illinois Senate voted to approve Senate Bill 818, the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act, legislation that will establish the requirements for public and charter schools that decide to teach comprehensive personal health and safety education (grades K-5) and comprehensive sexual health education (grades 6-12) in Illinois. “Everyday students across Illinois...
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How Judy has used empathy and advocacy to embrace living with HIV

May 11, 2021

By Ella Shapiro  When you talk to Judy Brown, it is immediately clear that the 69-year-old Chicagoan is passionate about advocating for the people around her. Every day, Judy commits herself to helping others and has been doing so since she and her husband tested positive for HIV in 1993. Judy is an active member of AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC)’s Ryan White community advisory...
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How Roy found new purpose through advocacy

May 6, 2021

Meet Roy Ferguson: AFC board member  By Ella Shapiro  One of Roy Ferguson's greatest pleasures in life is spending time with his granddaughters.  Every morning the 70-year-old Chicagoan and his partner, Michael, each take one of their youngest granddaughter’s hands and walk her to school. The pair’s eldest granddaughter just got onto her high school’s...
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CDC recommits to recognizing and acting on racism as a public health threat

April 29, 2021

On Thursday, April 8, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) echoed a deep, unconscionable truth that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) have known and experienced all along: racism is a public health threat . CDC’s new agency-wide initiative called Racism and Health aims to “refocus the CDC’s public health efforts on recognizing, acknowledging,...
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The Editor’s Desk: Why we include the people we interview in our editing process

April 27, 2021

By Bailey Williams  When racist ideas resound, denials that those ideas are racist typically follow...Denial is the heartbeat of racism, beating across ideologies, races and nations. -Ibram X. Kendi in How to Be An Antiracist  On Feb. 14, 2020, the New York Times profiled Black painter Jordan Casteel in recognition of her first solo museum show. When the article was completed,...
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George Floyd's murderer found guilty; AFC pledges continued action to end systemic racism

April 20, 2021

The jury in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin has returned guilty verdicts for the Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd in May 2020. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. George Floyd’s death reignited a nationwide movement to reform policing and law enforcement practices, systems that were developed to...
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AFC Statement on the killing of Matthew Zadok Williams on April 12, 2021

April 19, 2021

A police shooting near Decatur, Georgia has led to the killing of yet another Black man. Matthew Zadok Williams, the youngest of six children and the only son, was killed by Dekalb County Police in his own home on April 12, 2021. His mother and family were not notified until nearly 24 hours later. In the words of Matthew’s sister, “Matthew was a son, brother, uncle, cousin,...
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Advocate with AFC during Virtual Advocacy Week starting Monday, April 19

April 16, 2021

By Coleman Goode  The dictionary definition of community is “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.” I like to think of community as a social group with commonalities such as norms, religion, values, customs or identity — basically, you all want the same thing for yourselves. The term “community mobilization”...
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We will remember Daunte Wright. We must demand overdue change.

April 14, 2021

We are hurt and angered by Daunte Wright’s death at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota on Sunday, April 11. Daunte’s murder tells the same story of broken policing and law enforcement systems throughout our country that continue to ravage Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, and take the lives of the very individuals the police are sworn to protect.   The...
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AFC’s BIPOC associate board members share their COVID-19 vaccine experiences

April 13, 2021

By Ella Shapiro   Jade Greear, a member of AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC)’s associate board, is excited about this summer and the opportunity to go out more in the upcoming months. Jade’s optimism is something that many of us have not felt while enduring the COVID-19 pandemic, but Jade has good reason to feel optimistic. She’s fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  ...
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