Forty HIV prevention advocates convened via teleconference on May 6 to kickoff the Prevention Justice Alliance to build on the momentum from last December’s Prevention Justice Mobilization, which was launched in Atlanta and across the country in dozens of affiliated events.

The Kickoff promoted strategic campaigns addressing HIV prevention from a social justice standpoint. Speakers emphasized actions advocates can take to target the social and structural conditions that increase vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV. Callers also suggested next steps for the PJA (summarized below and available here).

On the call, AIDS Foundation of Chicago and CHAMP released talking points (available by clicking here) that prepare the community to respond to the CDC's forthcoming revised HIV incidence estimate. Speakers promoted three additional campaigns – the 41 Million Strong Campaign (positioning violence against women as an election issue), the push for a National AIDS Strategy, and efforts to lift the federal ban on syringe exchange.

Participants also dialogued about next steps for the PJA. Major themes included (1) the need to further refine the HIV prevention justice framework, while utilizing it immediately to leverage opportunities; (2) making explicit connections among prevention issues to broaden response; and (3) expanding our capacity via training and base building to bring more people into an HIV prevention movement.

Callers suggested these next steps:

• Promote HIV prevention campaigns to which individuals and local organizations can connect, especially ones that energize or engage expansion of bases of support
• Continue the strategy discussion to expand and describe the HIV prevention justice framework
• Provide examples of how prevention justice can be used to win campaigns or to broaden our work by making connections between different issues and constituencies
• Incorporate strategies dealing with incarceration and prison justice at both national and local levels
• Bridge US global and domestic AIDS policy – both in terms of specific issues like funding and reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and by putting out alerts that explicitly make the domestic-global connection
• Organize specific alliances, coalitions or strategy conferences to discuss common ground across social justice movements in local areas
• Build capacity of individuals and organizations through skills, campaign development and base building trainings
• Execute training efforts in ways to significantly expand our base and to empower others to further our work

In the short-term, the PJA will:

• Reconvene the initial core planning group
• Organize future HIV Prevention Justice Campaign calls on a quarterly basis
• Re-engage the preventionjustice.org blog to share materials and stories
• Build a dedicated event blog for the International AIDS Conference, AIDS2008.com, which will be oriented around HIV prevention justice
• Increase capacity to nurture the PJA with staff resources at CHAMP
• Work collectively to develop next steps