News

All News

Illinois Department of Corrections Partners with AIDS Foundation Chicago to Offer New Educational Video

February 3, 2012

“Outside the Walls: Life Beyond HIV” to be Shown Inside Illinois Department of Corrections Facilities Starting This Year CHICAGO – Angela McLaurin describes it simply as “the wake-up call” – that moment in 1995 when she tested positive for HIV while in prison. Upon her release, Angela used an HIV services...
Read more...

Kushner in the Here and Now

February 2, 2012

Charlie Newell (at left) , longtime artistic director of the Court Theatre,and playwright Tony Kushner discuss the upcoming production of Angels in America . AFC Photos Legendary playwright Tony Kushner shuffled into the rehearsal room about 10 minutes before the first read-through of the Court Theatre’s spring production of Angels in America . He shook...
Read more...

ADAP Changes for Better

February 1, 2012

UPDATE: (2/23/12) Legislators approved the proposed changes to the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The changes will be implemented over the next six months. Life is about to get much simpler for the 4,200 people who access their HIV medications through the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The program has undergone major changes in the last 18 months or so,...
Read more...

Sheltering Our Youth

January 26, 2012

Robert Dibbles (standing at left) John Cerdon (center in blue shirt) and other homeless youth advocates help advise the city's new homelessness plan.   (All photos courtesy of Bruce Powell)   A young Asian-American man stood to address the crowd of 200 or so people gathered at the Chicago Temple to discuss youth homelessness on Wednesday. John...
Read more...

Open Letter to FDA Urging PrEP Review

January 25, 2012

This is an open letter to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the priority review of the drug Truvada for use in PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). The AIDS Foundation of Chicago and 25 other organizations signed this letter to counter the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's protest of the FDA regarding this review. T o read the PDF of the letter, with footnotes, click here . January 25,...
Read more...

Housing Chicago's Most Vulnerable

January 24, 2012

The powerful story of Frank and Anthony Nowotnik, 43-year-old twin brothers recently housed after a hardscrabble life of homelessness, was featured in the Monday Chicago Tribune . We encourage you to read Colleen Mastony’s honest and compelling story, “Warming to Life Indoors.” The inseparable Nowotnik brothers, as the story describes, are still coming to terms...
Read more...

The Crime of Being Gay (and Having to Hide It)

January 19, 2012

Jim Pickett (at right) stands with with Brian Kanyemba of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2011. (AFC Photo)   The dream of the AIDS-free generation will never be realized as long as there remain countries in the world that kill and imprison...
Read more...

HIV Prevention Justice Alliance Supports Affordable Care Act

January 17, 2012

(Chicago, IL January 17, 2012) — On Friday, January 13, in the United States Supreme Court, HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) aligned itself with fifteen other national HIV advocacy organizations in a friend-of-the-court brief authored by Lambda Legal in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the ACA.  “The U.S. Supreme...
Read more...

Surviving Addiction, an Advocate Finds Her Voice

January 17, 2012

Melanie Paul, supportive housing coordinator at AFC. (AFC Photo-Ed Negron) This story is the first in an occasional series of profiles of the people who work for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and its community partners, and of the people we serve.   “So, I was...
Read more...

Remembering Fernando Blasco Lagos

January 12, 2012

Fernando Blasco Lagos stands (center with red hat) with his peers at the United States Conference on AIDS in November. (AFC Photo-Ed Negron) Fernando Blasco Lagos, a longtime HIV/AIDS advocate for the Latino community, died on Dec. 23. A celebration of his life is planned for Saturday, Jan. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 1305 N. Hamlin Ave., Chicago...
Read more...