By Jennifer Moreno, CADC
To honor National Recovery Month, we asked AFC’s Certified Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Counselor (CADC) to reflect on the difficult road to recovery. Since July 2015, Moreno has conducted health assessments for 42 of AFC’s housing clients who are regular or recovering users of drugs and alcohol, and she has developed treatment plans with 23 clients...
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Chicagoan Lindsay Mitchell recounts her connection to the HIV cause and to AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, which she has participated in for more than a decade. Mitchell also celebrates that which she has gained as a result of her volunteer work at Bonaventure House: a life-long love.
I run in the AIDS Run & Walk Chicago every year in memory of my father-in-law, who died of AIDS-related...
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by Sara Semelka and Pamela Tassin
During the last week of July, Sara Semelka and Pamela Tassin from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s Midwest HIV Prevention and Pregnancy Planning Initiative (MHPPPI) and #PrEP4Love projects participated in the 2016 National Reproductive Health Conference , hosted by the National Clinical Training Center for Family Planning. They spent three days...
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by Eryn MacNeil
“I was only 22 when I was diagnosed. I was young and I felt it. But everyone’s just trying to learn how to live, and now I’m just learning how to live a little differently.”
Jessica was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 22 when she visited the doctor to have her lymph nodes examined. What seemed like a mundane check-up quickly turned...
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For Harrison McEldowney, a 35-year veteran of the dance scene, there is no feeling quite like dance. “It gives you an elevated sense of your being,” said McEldowney, his voice increasing in speed and energy as he recalled the sensation. “It’s an incredible feeling — a natural high.”
He has been fueled by that natural high as a dancer in New York,...
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by Jacina Sims
What a weekend! Over the course of four days, I graduated with my Master of Public Health degree, traveled to DC among young leaders in the Black LGBTQ movement, and mourned as I heard about the horrible massacre in Orlando.
As a Master of Public Health practicum intern at AFC, I have witnessed and been a part of many powerful moments. I enjoyed my time working...
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By Ramon Gardenhire, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy
As the co-chair of AIDS United’s non-partisan Public Policy, Elections Sub-Committee, and working in partnership with a coalition of nearly 70 organizations, I traveled across the country to meet with the presidential candidates to influence inclusion of HIV/AIDS policy language within each party’s platform and campaign...
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Salud y Orgullo Mexicano project manager Gilberto Soberanis describes his physical and emotional journey across borders and boundaries, both literal and figurative. Edited by Mirhanda Alewine.
Hear Beto tell his story in his own words (en español).
In 1995, when I was 10, my mom, 2 year-old sister and I got...
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by Mirhanda Alewine
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago's Corrections Case Management program aims to support detainees living with HIV as they transition from incarceration, providing them with case managers to help connect them to care and housing. Darlene Davis divulges her experiences with incarceration and HIV, explaining the impact of her corrections case manager.
What does...
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