Julie Davids's blog

Last summer, CDC revealed data confirming that HIV prevention funding was not distributed in proportion to the severity of disease in different communities. On June 13, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy made it clear that reducing HIV incidence in the United States would require shifting emphasis to the hardest-hit communities, including gay and bisexual men, transgender people, and African Americans and Latinos of all genders and sexual orientations.

TODAY, a Federal advisory council will discuss "re-aligning" HIV/AIDS resources. Call in, then join us in a LiveBlog below during the meeting, sharing your thoughts on this important issue. On Thursday, July 29, from 2 - 3:30 pm Eastern, there will be a meeting (held via conference call) of the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention (CHACHSPT).

It is first-come, first-serve - so be sure to call in a bit early to get on the call. To participate, please dial (877) 952-1988 and enter passcode 2162797 for access. Then join our LiveBlog by clicking READ MORE below, to view whole blog post

NOTE - this is a PUBLIC discussion, and any comments you make may be redistributed or quoted by the media, though we ask media to announce yourselves and ask permission to quote.  read more »

CHAMP Community Organizer and HIV PJA leader Waheedah Shabazz-El gave the final word at closing session of International AIDS Conference: "Human Rights as a Conscious Achievement”

Watch it right here, and here's the text:

"Human Rights as a Conscious Achievement”

IAC 2010 Closing Speech
Waheedah Shabazz-El, USA

I want to start by honoring the Creator for what has been created here. I am truly
humbled by this incredible opportunity. I want to thank the city of Vienna, acknowledge
all of the Dignitaries, my Colleagues and my Friends.

This 18th International AIDS Conference has been a true testament to what we can
accomplish when we share a mission. Even as we’ve explored evidence on prevention,
funding for universal access and the value of early treatment for HIV/AIDS, our mutual
strategy is to press forward in our fight for human rights and against the devastating
effects of HIV and AIDS.

Commonly, we aspire to live in a world free from stigma and discrimination irrespective
of who we are, where we come from and what we believe in. This is a great
challenge, but I strongly believe we can get there through our collective power.
We gathered here in order to take on the shared responsibility of delivering on our
commitment to Universal Access to prevention, treatment, care and support to all those
who need it.

We have examined both our successes and our failures. By doing this we have
strengthened each other.

Collectively we have reaffirmed that Human Rights and HIV Prevention Justice are the
cornerstones of our universal response to HIV and AIDS.  read more »

Hello HIV Prevention Justice activists!

Over the past three years, we have been fighting together for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy. And now - it has finally arrived!

Go here to download and read the full Strategy, the Plan for Implementation, and the Presidential Directive: http://www.whitehouse.gov/AIDS-Strategy

TODAY: The press conference launching the Strategy (2 pm Eastern) will be a live webcast from the White House complex at WhiteHouse.gov/live. Join us for a LIVE BLOG RIGHT HERE at www.preventionjustice.org DURING the webcast to share your thoughts, analysis, and ideas. President Obama will also speak on the Strategy via live webcast at 6 pm. 

Register here to be notified when the LiveBlog starts - but be sure to scroll down for other important information!

Note: If you are a journalist and/or blogger, please identify yourself as such if you are participating in the LiveBlog.  Participants, please note: this is a public space and any comments will be publicly available during and after the Live Blog.

We have been told by numerous people involved in the creation of the strategy that we MUST "hold their feet to the fire" on implementation. If we agree that the Strategy has key elements that reflect human rights and principles of HIV Prevention Justice, you can rely on the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance to join together in action to demand implementation and monitoring. Thus, we will make sure you have all available materials to help analyze and act on the Strategy.  read more »

For several years, CHAMP was very fortunate to work with Suzy Subways as the editor of our Solidarity Project publication.

She's now started a new blog called (and about) AIDS and Social Justice. She's kicked it off with some reporting from the recent U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. Highly recommended!

Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday for the first HIV PJA LiveBlog.

We started the conversation as people with HIV and other activists around the country while we waited on hold for the teleconference meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) , the top advisory body to President Obama on the epidemic. Its membership includes people living with HIV, and it also includes long-time allies of CHAMP and members of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance.

Three HIV PJA founders - myself, Dazon Dixon-Diallo of SisterLove and David Munar of AIDS Foundation of Chicago - led the liveblog session. Just click "Replay" below to see how it rolled... 

But a few follow up points:

1) Here's a recording of the PACHA Call itself.

The main item of business was passing a resolution that addressed the crisis in access to AIDS drugs, referencing the need for more (and more than one year) funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), and the need to accelerate expanded access to Medicaid coverage for people with HIV through the Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA) which is now not set to go into effect until 2014. But also, about halfway through, things go a bit haywire when they open up the call, unmuting everyone AND there seems to be some sort of fire alarm as well! It was a disappointment to those who were scheduled to give public comment (only eight were allowed but only one got a chance to do it) and everyone else who wanted to chime in but was not allowed.

2) It's not too late to get your public comment into PACHA!

Just get it to the PACHA Coordinator - here's his full contact information:  read more »

Thanks so much to all of you who endorsed the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance / Project UNSHACKLE letter to CDC.

You joined a forceful call to insist that CDC commits to its plan to confront the criminalization of HIV. Thanks to you, CDC has pledged to:
 read more »

I found this very useful. Kierra herself is a young (started in her 20s) executive director. Note the specific recommendations in bullet points towards the end. What are your ideas about, and experiences with, intergenerational work?

April 27, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

Within the pro-choice movement, we have struggled with how to engage young people in meaningful, inclusive and lasting ways. When young people are not engaged in these ways, not only do they feel excluded, isolated and marginalized, the movement does not benefit from the new perspectives, sustained energy and forward momentum that young people bring. 

Here's what we know: Young people are already engaged in work around reproductive justice in ways that are meaningful to them. Young people in Kansas are organizing around egg donation. Young people in Maine are lobbying against funding for abstinence-only education. Young people in California are blogging about the lack of access to reproductive healthcare for immigrants. Young people in Colorado are educating their peers about emergency contraception. And young people across the country are speaking out for abortion rights.
 read more »

Do you know that HIV isn't spread by spitting, and that condoms are an effective HIV prevention tool?

TAKE ACTION: Endorse the letter to CDC  asking them to keep their own promises to address HIV criminalization.

Bill Clinton said NOT lifting the federal funding ban on syringe exchange was one of the biggest regrets in his presidency. But he didn't fess up to that till he was safely out of the White House.

Barack Obama pledged to lift the ban. Then pointedly didn't publicly work to do so, even when his imprimatur could have given a much-needed margin of safety for congressional efforts.

But who really did work to lift the ban? People with HIV, drug users, harm reduction leaders and their allies. Long-time and brand new AIDS activists who took to the streets and the halls of Congress and the plaza of HHS and the UN for decades at this point, including those who got arrested in the Capitol Rotunda in one of the first acts of civil disobedience against the Obama Adminstration. Organizers and policy wonks who counted the votes and worked hand in hand with grassroots activists to persuade and convert legislators. Religous people who spoke up about what faith and redemption and compassion really means. AIDS service and prevention providers and drug treatment people and harm reduction counselors and people in recovery, and people in and out of recovery, who spoke up about their lives and their work.

And because of all this - not because of the political cowardice of those who knew they were doing the wrong thing by allowing the ban to persist but who time and again shrank in the face of ideological opposition - the ban will now be lifted.

This weekend, the Senate joined the House in approving the final 2010 appopriations bill that will lift the ban, without the deadly not-near-1000-feet-of-anything amendment that would have rendered it virtually meaningless.  read more »