By Raven Feagins
McHenry, Illinois, has been Jamie Braxton's home since she was 8 years old. She loves the familiarity that living in a smaller city brings (McHenry has a population of 26,600). Jamie (pictured at left, in center) grew up in a two-parent household, regularly attended church and describes her upbringing as overall normal. In 1995, when she was 33 years old, she even began...
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The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) coordinates 135 case managers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area to support clients who are living with HIV and related chronic diseases. Case managers are there to connect with clients directly and help them achieve goals such as obtaining stable housing or getting connected to a medical provider that may help them reach an undetectable viral load...
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By Raven Feagins
“Imagine putting on multiple hats with each call you receive. Sometimes I’m the person that clients call to laugh and joke with, but oftentimes I’m the person they’re reaching out to because they’re in a crisis. Often, my team and I are the sole individuals that a caller has disclosed their HIV status to at the time of their...
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The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is pleased to announce the top eight Chicago-area care organizations in its HIV medical and non-medical case management network for Dec. 1, 2016 – Nov. 30, 2017. By connecting people living with HIV to case managers who help them achieve their health goals, these eight organizations support more than 711 members of AFC’s 5,869 clients. ...
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By Andrea Dakin, Senior Director of Program Development at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Editor's note: Looking to make a career transition into grant writing and management? Visit aidschicago.org/careers to apply for our Program Development Manager position!
While fundraising or grant writing may not be the obvious career choice for those receiving a Bachelor of Social Work...
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The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is proud to announce the 12 organizations selected to receive non-medical case management funding to serve people living with HIV throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Organizations will be receiving funding through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, which distributes $2.3 billion nationwide to fund services specifically for people living with HIV. This funding...
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Helping people leaving Illinois’ jails and prisons thrive is at the core of the Safe & Sound Return Partnership (SSRP), a three-year program that started in October that will connect 215 returning citizens Led by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) and funded by a $900,000 federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), SSRP will also partner with and train...
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By Raven Feagins
Veronica* is the loving matriarch of her Chicago-area family. When she’s not taking care of two of her grandchildren, her mom and her aunt, she works as a talented seamstress. She’s open with her family about most things - except her own health status.
Veronica is living with HIV and has for the past 20 years. Most of her family, except her husband, don’t...
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Few things can more negatively impact a person’s long-term health than being homeless or unstably housed. Fortunately for 100 homeless and chronically ill Chicagoans, there is hope. Two experimental housing programs led by AFC’s Center for Housing and Health (CHH) offer those Chicagoans a fresh start.
CHH is also looking beyond those 100 people whose lives are being transformed...
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by Raven Feagins
Michelle Hennigan is a compassionate mother of one who lives in the small village of Johnsburg – just over an hour and a half outside of Chicago. Michelle loved providing a comfortable lifestyle for her and her daughter, but in 1999 – just as she was moving up in her career – Michelle became extremely ill with no sign of recovery.
"I...
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