by Malary Gregory
Kasey White is a student and advocate for homeless youth in Chicago, specifically those who identify with the LGBTQ community. She has been featured in the documentary Homestretch, which followed three homeless youth living in Chicago as they navigated completing high school and building their futures. In 2014, she was awarded with the Windy City Times’ 30 Under...
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by Eryn MacNeil
The apartment is dimly lit, but spacious. There isn’t much decoration, but it’s well-kept. It’s a short walk up in a neat brick building on a tree-lined street. Today, the shades are drawn, but on the weekends the apartment is filled with children. Jeanette Thomas spent several years being homeless, battling addiction, and was recently diagnosed with breast...
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by Ramon Gardenhire, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy
I knew my meeting last week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was going to be a smashing success when I and 19 other representatives of more than 70 HIV organizations introduced ourselves as a bunch of policy wonks and Secretary Clinton replied, “Well, you know that’s a term of endearment to me.”...
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by Mirhanda Alewine
Access to Care is an in-home substance use counseling program run through the AIDS Foundation of Chicago in partnership with housing agencies across the city. George Scroggins became the first client of Access to Care in 2015, and he believes that the case management and housing services he receives from AFC and Heartland Alliance saved his life.
...
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by Ashley Slupski
HIV is not an easy topic to discuss for many of us. However, misinformation about HIV and the people living with the disease continue to fuel stigma. We must talk openly about HIV to increase awareness in our communities and decrease stigma and shame often associated with HIV.
AFC staff pulled together 10 movies we think will get the conversation started about HIV...
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by Eryn MacNeil
If you’re a young woman who has experienced hiring discrimination and a lack of resources, it would be easy to give up. Instead, Meghan Williams has turned her past experiences into a way to help others.
As a 21-year-old transgender woman, she works with AFC’s Project Elevate, a peer-led STI prevention campaign, on its Youth Expert Advisory Board,...
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by Jasmine Tucker, AFC Associate Board Co-chair and HIV advocate
As I was riding the Pink Line to 200 W. Jackson Blvd at 5 a.m., I had no clue what HIV Advocacy Day was going to bring. I was nervous, because this was my first time having a chance to potentially meet face-to-face with my legislators, Representative (and Majority Leader) Barbara Flynn Currie and Senator Kwame Raoul. I knew...
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by Mirhanda Alewine
CommunityLinks, a program of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), contracts with managed care health insurance plans to offer a variety of services to their members. One of the services CommunityLinks offers is Reach and Locate, which aims to find and engage members in their health care plans, ultimately offering them services intended to improve care and health outcomes...
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by Mirhanda Alewine and Eryn MacNeil
In Plain Sight, from Chicago’s History Moves “mobile museum” project , aims to engage communities in conversation about the history of women living with HIV in Chicago by highlighting the stories of participants in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). Eryn MacNeil and Mirhanda Alewine, two AFC staff members, had the opportunity...
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by Eryn MacNeil
For many women affected by HIV, it’s easy to feel alone and unsupported. There isn’t always a community welcoming you with open arms — or at least it can feel that way sometimes.
Poppy Morgan took matters into her own hands and created her own community. Poppy, 40, is a leader in the nonprofit sector in the western suburbs of Chicago (due...
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