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)!
AIDS.gov: HHS consults community on funding to implement the Strategy
Many of you asked the $64,000 questions when the National HIV/AIDS Strategy was released: "How's it going to be funded?"
You asked, and President Obama responded. In the budget the President proposed for next federal fiscal year, the Administration asked Congress to set aside 1% of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) HIV funding for Strategy implementation.
In June 2011, HHS brought together community and government stakeholders recommendations how the implementation funding should be used. A top HHS official, Dr. Ron Valdisari, posted an extensive summary of the meeting over at AIDS.gov. Here's a snippet:
Proposed National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Fund
By Ronald Valdiserri, M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Because the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) is a priority endeavor for the U.S. government, when the President released his Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12) budget proposal in February of this year, he proposed a special fund to support the implementation of the Strategy. If approved, the FY12 Budget Proposal authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to transfer one percent of the department’s domestic HIV/AIDS spending to promote new, collaborative efforts in support of the goals of the NHAS. If approved in the Congressional appropriations process, this would establish a fund of approximately $60 million dollars that would be administered by the Assistant Secretary for Health whose office would work closely with HHS operating divisions, staff offices, and community partners to determine the most strategic ways to use these resources to move us closer toward achieving the goals of the NHAS.
[...]
Consultation on Possible Uses of NHAS Implementation Fund
To begin the process of seeking input, on June 21, 2011, HHS convened some 40 stakeholders (PDF 64KB) from inside and outside of government to discuss principles and priorities that should be considered in the event that these resources become available in FY12. Mr. Jeffrey Crowley, Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), noted at the start of the meeting that the idea for an NHAS Implementation Fund grew out of requests from the community to ensure that resources are available to implement the Strategy.
Preparing for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy’s Release
AIDS advocates anticipate President Barack Obama will soon release a comprehensive, five-year plan of action to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Announcement of the Strategy will be historic. After nearly 30 years battling HIV/AIDS, the federal government will set a new, coordinated plan of action designed to achieve greater progress against the epidemic. President Obama made creation and implementation of the Strategy his flagship HIV/AIDS initiative; his Administration has been working on the Strategy since assuming power in 2009.
To help prepare community members for the announcement, the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy has developed this document, which offers core concepts for communications about the Strategy and ideas on how to leverage its release to garner local and national attention to urgent issues in our communities.
White House Meeting on Black Men and HIV
On June 2, 2010, the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) convened a meeting at the White House on Black Men and HIV. The meeting included black men living with HIV, experts on HIV/AIDS, Federal, State, and local policymakers, community-based service providers, representatives from foundations, and leaders from across the black community’s civil rights and faith organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to raise awareness about the domestic HIV epidemic among Black men, discuss government and community responses to the epidemic, and promote a conversation among diverse elements of the Black community. View records of the meetings proceedings on C-SPAN and presentations on the epidemiology by ONAP Senior Policy Advisor Gregorio Millett, M.P.H. and observations from the local level delivered by Dr. Shannon Hadder of the District of Columbia Department of Health.