Speakout Reports: Substance Use Breakout Group

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. The Substance Use Breakout group covered a lot of territory during their discussion. At the top of the list of their priorities, of course, is a city funded needle exchange program. Progress is being made on the hill that may in fact make this possible. Other recommendations included providing substance use training to HIV providers, creating a 12-step support group specifically for HIV positive individuals, and creating a mentor program or peer hotline. click here to see the flip-chart notes from the substance use breakout group.

Speakout Reports: Jobs Breakout Session

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. The Jobs Breakout group was facilitated by Karen Pomerantz. In addition to being a member of DC Fights Back, Karen serves on the governing council of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association. This group talked about promoting independent living among HIV positive people to reduce the need for government help. This is definitely a timely issue. Because of better treatments for HIV/AIDS, we live in a time when people who have been on diability because of HIV/AIDS can return to work: that is IF there are jobs available and they are prepared for those jobs. This breakout group talked about the need for vocational training and life skills training, as well as HIV specific job training opportunities. Participants in this group emphasized that people living with HIV/AIDS can play an important role in fighthing the epidemic in DC when they are employed peer educators and community educators. Click here to see the flip chart notes from the Jobs Breakout Group

Speakout Reports: Stigma Breakout Group

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. One of our smaller breakout groups at the Speakout was Stigma, which is quite a challenging topic to take on. We all know that stigma impacts HIV in DC. It's one of the reasons some people are reluctant to get tested for HIV in the first place, or to be open about their HIV status. As our breakout group stated, stigma causes "shunning, hurt, hopelessness, denial of dignity, denial of opportunities, low self esteem, and marginalization. But how do we fix stigma? Again, our breakout group said: "We fix stigma through education, advocacy, by being real and truthful, through grass roots organizing, by utilizing resources, being involved, and getting others invoved." One of the concrete suggestions that came out of this group was creating a speakers bureau of HIV positive individuals in DC. I think this is a great idea. Personally, I think the best way to overcome stigma is for people living with HIV to be out, open, honest, and live their lives with integrity. We are lucky to have several such folks in DC including: Wallace Corbett, David von Storch, Danielle Pleasant, Larry Bryant, Monte Wolfe, and countless others. As we continue to look at this topic, there are two great resources I want to share with you. The first is NMAC's HIV/AIDS Stigma Resource Center. You'll find lots of great information and resources on that site. Second, the Academy for Educational Development has an "Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma: Toolkit for Action." It's a rather lengthy PDF file, click here to download the toolkit. And be sure to share your thoughts on fighting stigma by posting a comment below or e-mailing me privately. Thanks to DC Fights Back member Geno Dunington for facilitating this breakout group and providing opening comments at the Speakout. click here to download the notes from the stigma breakout group.

Speakout Reports: Women's Breakout Session

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. Our Women's breakout group was moderated by the amazing Cherie Lindsay from Our Place DC. Other individuals on the panel included Marie Sansone from the DC Department of Health, and DC Fights Back member Dorithia Akins. One of the topics the group tackled was HIV/AIDS research. The group would like to see more trial study opportunities for women, and would like to see studies that take their needs into account (i.e. childcare, etc ...). The group also discussed the importance of women-focused research like Microbicide Research, and specifically, the need to have more money for Microbicide Research (Barack Obama has introduced the Microbicide Development Act of 2007 in the Senate which if it succeeds, will address this). The group also talked about the need for a clinic specifically for women, a 'one stop center' for women in the district. Other issues that were brought up included: job placement, skills building, life skills/time management, respite, and support groups. I hope that the folks in this working group continue working on these issues. If I missed something or you have additional things to add, please do so by posting a comment below. Click here to download the flip chart notes from the Women's Breakout Group.

Speakout Reports: Housing Breakout Session

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. The Housing Breakout Group had an intense discussion. Participants included our amazing moderator Kristine Campbell, Carter Hewgley, the Health and Human Services Program Analyst for the Office of the City Administrator, and longtime activist Everett Foy who volunteered to head up the new DC Fights Back Housing Working Group. Many of the concerns raised were things I heard back at the November 2006 DC Housing Symposium. Problems the group include the HOPWA waiting list, a lack of TBRA (tenant based rental assistance) providers, an unruly and difficult process for accessing various housing programs, unsuccessful transitional housing, and a lack of trained monitors. The Housing Breakout Session came up with several concrete recommendations, which I hope the Housing Working Group will work on in the future. Recommendations included better training for monitors, conducting a needs assesment, and dveloping a strategy for community involvement. Perhaps the most ambitious goal set by this group is to take matters into their own hands and identify and develop unused buildings for for people living with HIV/AIDS. I look forward to seeing how the work of this group progresses. And I also signed up for the working group, so I help to lend a hand. Click here to download the full flip-chart notes from the Housing Breakout Group

Speakout Reports: Youth Breakout Session

Several organizations co-sponsored a DC HIV/AIDS Speakout on May 17th, 2007. I will be posting the reports from each of the breakout groups throughout the next week. The final outcome document from the Speakout will be published on the DC Fights Back Website. If you'd like to get involved, please be sure to join this yahoo group. The Youth Breakout group covered a lot of topics including health care and comprehensive sex education. Members of the youth breakout group included Jeremy Ogusky, Policy Manager for Metro Teen AIDS, LGBT and Latino Activist Jose Guttierez, and Rita Sinha, Miss District of Columbia International. To very concrete recommendations came out of the Youth Breakout Group. The first is to create reality based sex and drug education for DC Youth. The good news is that a broad coalition of groups in DC are already pushing for comprehensive sex education, so we're on our way to that goal. The consensus of the group was that abstinence is very important, but it needs to be part of a comprehensive message that includes information on safer sex. The second recommendation is to create a speakers bureau of people living with HIV/AIDS in the District of Columbia to talk to young people in the District. I think this is also a great idea. Click here to see the flip-chart notes from the Youth Breakout Group. If there was anything missed, or anything you'd like to add, please post your comments below.

The May 17th Speakout on HIV/AIDS

Thanks to everyone who made yesterday's Speakout a success. You can see pictures from the event by clicking here. After great presentations by Geno Dunington and Alex Lawson, Larry Bryant helped us form breakout groups for more intense discussion. Our breakout groups were Housing, Jobs, Youth, Stigma, Substance Use, and Women. All of the facilitators for the breakout groups were experts in their field and did an amazing job leading the group discussions. Give us all a few days to process all the great information we got tonight, and nex week I hope to blog each day about a different breakout group and the issues they raised at the speakout. Also, we got a lot of requests from folks to have Alex Lawson's powerpoint presentation from tonight. Alex will be putting it on the DC Fights Back website soon. Today I have my hands full with HIV Vaccine Awareness Day Events, so be patient and I'll make sure we get the details from the Speakout online as soon as Danielle can type up all of those flip charts!