budget cuts

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced service cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which will reduce access to the program beginning July 1, 2011.

The HIV Meds Access Campaign is asking people living with HIV/AIDS to share their stories about accessing medication and health care services. These personal anecdotes help us creatively and effectively demonstrate to state and federal lawmakers why programs that provide medication and care are critical for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Washington Needs to Hear from You!

In early January 2010, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes announced that the state has over $5.1 billion in unpaid bills but no cash to pay them.  As a result, service providers can't meet payroll, agencies are at risk of shutting down, and clients may lose services.  

Ariana was kind enough to include a post from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago's Johnathon Briggs and John Peller about the City of Chicago's proposed public health budget cuts:

by Samuel Worley

   As indicators point to the beginning of the end of the economic recession, local agencies that offer social services to the LGBT community continue to struggle with funding.  
   Although the state of the national economy has dominated headlines over the past year, many in the Chicago nonprofit community say that constant struggle over funding and budgetary issues is nothing new.  Most have experiened a slowdown in private fundraising and donations from foundations since the beginning of the recession - but political intransigence on the part of the crisis-laden state government did not begin with the recession, and in some important ways occurs quite independently of it.
   What's different from the seemingly routine state government crises of the years past, said John Peller, Director of Government Relations for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), is the size of read full story...

On July 16, more than two weeks after the beginning of the new state fiscal year, the Illinois General Assembly sent Governor Pat Quinn a state budget plan that largely avoids massive social service funding cuts.  Governor Quinn almost immediately signed the bills into law.

Nine days into the new fiscal year, Illinois still doesn’t have a state budget in place.  What does this mean for people living with HIV/AIDS and other special needs? Without state funds, agencies can’t afford to keep the staff that provides essential services to Illinoisans with complex health conditions.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is deeply concerned that state budget cuts and delays will force agencies to cut HIV prevention and care services. AFC is working with a broad coalition of social service organizations to advocate for an Illinois state budget that adequately funds needed services.

Tuesday June 30th
Mass Convergence at the Thompson Center!