By Earl Fowlkes
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has been with us since 1981 and I have worked in the HIV/AIDS prevention and care field since the mid-80s as a caregiver, volunteer, service provider and administrator. I have often referred to those days as the “time of darkness,” as an HIV diagnosis meant pain and heartache, both physical as well as emotional, as there were very few medicines...
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Chris Wade is more than just your average HIV advocate.
His longstanding work and organizing in downstate Illinois contribute to education and advocacy for the rights of people living with HIV. He attended the 2018 HIV is Not a Crime National Training Academy (HINAC 3) back in June in Indianapolis, Ind., which trained advocates from all over the nation to talk about...
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Avery Matthew grew up in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and moved to Chicago 11 years ago. “I was starving for diversity, things to do, culture, museums,” they said.
“A lot of my growth and identification was defined in Chicago.” Avery works in Accounting and Finance recruiting for a management consulting firm. They also support passion projects like serving on the...
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Over the course of the last two weeks, Governor Bruce Rauner has deemed it necessary to veto three pieces of health care access and treatment legislation that would have had a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of people living with chronic illnesses, including HIV. The disappointment we feel in the Governor’s actions is tempered by the knowledge that all of these bills will...
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Today, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is deeply disappointed that Gov. Bruce Rauner is playing political games with the lives of millions of Illinois residents who rely on the Medicaid program for access to their lifesaving medications, including people living with HIV.
Sign this petition now to urge legislators to override the governor’s veto
Gov. Rauner issued a veto...
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UPDATE 9/7/2018: The response we received from both departments failed to directly answer the questions presented to them, calling the request “overly time consuming and unduly burdensome”.
In response to this, AFC has made a request to the Illinois attorney general's Office of Public Access Counselor to determine whether DHS and HFS violated...
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By Raven Feagins
Hataria James is an outgoing, loving mother of 6 with a passion for giving back to her community. While she is in an incredibly stable place in her life right now, 16 years ago she would have never imagined where she is at today.
Hataria currently works at Men & Women in Prison Ministries (MWIPM) , an organization dedicated to supporting the health, wellness...
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By Ashley Brown
UPDATE: In November 2018, the Illinois Department of Health and Family Services (HFS) announced that a hepatitis C cure would be accessible for thousands more Illinoisans on Medicaid, many of whom were previously denied treatment until they reached end-stage disease. Learn more here .
If you are on Medicaid in Illinois and have hepatitis C, be prepared to wait...
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The Department of Defense released the “Deploy or Get Out!” policy, effective Oct. 1, which directs the Pentagon to discharge service members who can’t be deployed outside of the U.S. for more than 12 consecutive months. Due to an antiquated policy dating back to the early days of the epidemic, service members living with HIV are considered non-deployable. An estimated 1,200...
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By Clair Daney
This spring, Baltimore made headlines as a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to restore $5 million in grant funding it had withheld without explanation from two local evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs.
This story has been a single outgrowth amid the Trump administration’s broader push to eliminate science-based,...
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