Since 2014, several U.S. cities, counties, and states have announced Ending the Epidemic (EtE) plans. What makes these initiatives unique– in addition to their ambition– is that they are driven by community leaders, including people living with HIV. In the spirit of the Denver Principles, these plans should be by and for those communities directly impacted by the epidemic.
Recently, the Trump administration has announced that it will be drafting its own national EtE plan by mid 2019. This obviously raises many concerns. First and foremost, can the drafting of such a plan possibly truly be led by the communities disproportionately impacted by the epidemic, when these very communities are facing direct attacks by the current administration?
In order to preserve the community-led spirit of EtE work, Act Now End AIDS (ANEA) – a national coalition of EtE leaders – intends to draft a community-led national plan. We will engage in a broad, multi-tiered process to collect as much information from impacted communities around the country as possible in order to accurately reflect what we need to end the HIV epidemic for all of us.
But for this process to work, WE WILL NEED YOUR HELP!
Below you will find more detailed instructions on how you, your organization, or your coalition can submit recommendations to be part of the national plan. Here are four main ways to provide input:
- An online recommendation form https://survey.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eWde8Hsj4p0L4UJ. SUBMISSIONS DUE BY AUGUST 10TH.
- Online webinars covering key recommendation topics (prevention and testing, care and treatment, structural interventions, research, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, opioids and the overdose epidemic, data and metrics)
- Web-based discussions and conference calls led by and soliciting input from specific affected communities
- An in person pre-USCA meeting to discuss an early draft of the plan to be held on September 5th in Orlando, FL
***If conference calls or web-based opportunities to provide input do not work for you or if you do not have access to these methods of providing input, please contact Alex Smith, Senior Policy Manager for AIDS United, by email at (asmith@aidsunited.org) by phone at (202) 876-2840 to make arrangements for providing input.
We invite you to use any and all of these options to provide recommendations for the plan. The online form may be used for as many recommendations as you want to submit. While individuals are absolutely invited to submit online recommendation forms, we also encourage submissions from groups.
Web-based discussions and conference calls will be announced over the month of July. We invite you to sign up for the ANEA listserv at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/act-now-end-aids-distribution/join in order to keep up to date. We will also be providing more information on the in person gathering in Orlando.
We look forward to hearing from communities impacted by HIV from all around the country over the next few months as we engage in this ambitious national planning process. If you have any questions or concerns at all, please asmith@aidsunited.org. Together, we can ensure that community leads the way toward the end of the HIV epidemic.