National AIDS Strategy’s taking a road trip… to see you!
***UPDATE***
Download this worksheet to help you prepare your town hall testimony!
If you live in Alabama, Washington or Pennsylvania, you're in luck! The White House Office of National AIDS Policy is going on a road trip, and they're coming to see you.
ONAP announced today that registration has opened for three upcoming dialogues on implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Details are below and you can read more and sign up here.
Birmingham: Incorporating Prevention and Care Research Into HIV Programs
Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 2:00 – 4:30 pm
Location: Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center, University of Alabama, B 1200 10th Ave. S. Birmingham, AL
Seattle: Building Capacity within the HIV Workforce so that it Delivers What We Need Today and Tomorrow
Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 pm
Location: Swedish Medical Center, Glaser Auditorium, 747 Broadway, Seattle, WA
Philly: Sustaining the Community-Based Response to HIV
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011
Time: 3:00 – 5:30 pm (new time)
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Dhirubhai Ambani Auditorium, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
From the White House…The National AIDS Strategy at One Year
Yesterday, in recognition of the one year anniversary of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the White House released an Implementation Update to keep us up to speed on the latest work (read it here), and this really cool video (watch it here)!
CEG Places Ads in Political Newspapers, Marking Anniversary of NHAS
We recently posted a statement endoresed by 142 organizations that reaffirms support for the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and lays out some principles we think are important to success. In recognition of the one-year anniversary of NHAS, the Washington, DC based organization Community Education Group (CEG) has posted ads in political newspapers Politico and Roll Call with an image of the statement and a list of endorsers! You can view the ads here...and here respectively.
CEG and UCHAPS announce Road to AIDS 2012
A "Dear Colleague" letter recently issued by A. Toni Young, Executive Director of the Community Education Group (CEG), announced that the Washington, DC based organization has partnered with the Urban Coalition of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS) and received funding to implement Road to AIDS 2012.
The Road to 2012 is a series of community mobilizing events through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 12 Cities and 3 additional southern jurisdictions, culminating into the official community mobilizing activity of the AIDS 2012 in Washington, DC in July 2012. The Road to AIDS 2012 is built upon the guiding principle that without a high performing public health system and meaningful community engagement, the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), as well as the aspirations of communities across the nation cannot be achieved.
Read the entire Dear Colleague letter here for more information and to find out how to get involved.
AIDS Advocates Praise Obama Administration for New Initiative Promoting Access to HIV Care
Washington, DC – As part of its pledge under the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance and an application template today to make it easier for states to apply for Section 1115 Medicaid waivers to cover pre-disabled people living with HIV. Right now (and until 2014 when health care reform expands Medicaid to most people up to 133% of the federal poverty level), most people living with HIV have to wait until they are disabled by AIDS to be eligible for Medicaid. An 1115 waiver gives a state flexibility to immediately cover pre-disabled people living with HIV under its Medicaid program.
“This is a huge victory for the HIV/AIDS community,” said Robert Greenwald, Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Director of the school’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. “Early access to HIV care and treatment will save lives and is very cost-effective. And, as the recent finding from the National Institute of Health trial (HPTN 052) study demonstrated, early diagnosis with access to care and treatment not only improves individual health, it greatly reduces transmission risk.”