Finance Committee
The Finance
Committee approved a request from the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office
(AACO) to move $33,000 in the PA suburban counties from Mental Health and
Transportation to Dental. This year’s Ryan White Part A grant award has not
been received yet. However, the Finance Committee approved a temporary level
funding budget.
Positive Committee
The Positive
Committee watched a Vice Magazine documentary on PrEP. You can see it for
yourself here.
Needs Assessment Committee
The Needs
Assessment Committee did a test run of their transportation survey. It will be
distributed to providers in March.
Ryan White Planning Council
On behalf of
AACO, the Finance Committee asked the Planning Council to approve the $33,000
shift to Dental in the PA counties. They also presented the level funding
budget. The Planning Council voted to approve both.
Planning Council Social!
The Planning
Council had their annual social after the February meeting. I hope everyone had
a great time. We ate snacks, gave out some door prizes, and got to know each
other better. Thanks to all the Planning Council members and guests who showed
up. Here’s a few pictures from the event, courtesy of Planning Council member
Ed Campbell.
Comp Planning
HRSA
recently put out a Ryan White Policy Clarification. The document defines what
can and can’t be funded under Ryan White. You can read it here.
The Comp
Planning Committee talked about 5 categories that will be affected by the
policy clarification: Local AIDS Pharmaceutical Assistance, Non-Medical Case
Management, Housing Assistance, Health Insurance Premium Cost-Sharing, and
Syringe Access. The committee is going to start working on a Health Insurance
Premium Cost-Sharing assistance program over the next few months.
HPG
Nicole did a
report on 2014’s focus groups for heterosexuals at high
risk of HIV. The participants talked about their positive and negative
experiences with health care. They also made recommendations for how health
care could be improved. Nicole will release a full report on the focus groups
in March.
Antonio gave
a presentation on PrEP. He went through PrEP campaigns
from across the country. The best PrEP marketing campaigns used pictures that
people could relate to. Their websites were simple and avoided listing too much
information.
The HPG did
an activity where they brainstormed their ideal service system. Some topics
they brought up were routine HIV testing, syringe exchange, and
decriminalization of drug use and sex work. The Ryan White Planning Council and
HPG Co-Chairs will talk about these topics at the Integrated Executive
Committee meeting later this month.
Tiffany
Dominique talked about the recent Bench to Bus Stop Conference, held at the
Mutter Museum on January 26th. The conference promoted networking
and encouraged health department representatives and researchers to work
together on future projects.
Want to get involved? To learn more, follow the links in
this post, attend one of the meetings listed on our calendar, or email info@hivphilly.org.
If you have questions, you can also call us at 215-574-6760.
