2011 Year in Review
NCAAN enjoyed tremendous success this past year in our efforts to promote responsible HIV/AIDS policy in North Carolina. We escaped the state budget crisis with NC AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) funding and HIV prevention funding intact -- and we fought back attempts to impose prior authorization restrictions on HIV meds for Medicaid recipients. These important policy victories preserve access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS across our state.
Our legislative victories came at a time of great promise for the future of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, with the UNC-based HPTN-052 clinical trial, which found that early antiretroviral treatment reduced HIV transmission by 96 percent. More than ever, it's clear that that early, uninterrupted access to HIV medications plays an essential role in preventing new HIV cases in addition to the direct health benefits to people living with HIV/AIDS.
An outpouring of public interest and volunteer engagement was key to our success. With the help of 104 active volunteers and with tremendous help from our community organizing interns - Chris Speer, Samantha Korb, Will Jackson, Julie McCracken, and Masia Nallo -- NCAAN educated thousands of North Carolinians about the importance of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs. By the end of the year, we identified over 5,000 Action Team members statewide -- people we can call upon to contact decision makers about HIV policy issues, as we did this past summer when we generated more than 75 phone calls to the NC Secretary of Health and Human Services in one day, urging continued support for HIV prevention programs. We also enlisted over 850 people in our Volunteer Team who want to help us with future community outreach and related volunteer events.
The success of our 2011 HIV/AIDS Advocacy Conference exemplifies our three-pronged commitment to: (1) educate people to become more effective HIV/AIDS advocates; (2) create opportunities to engage in strategic advocacy in support of responsible HIV/AIDS policies; and (3) build community by creating opportunities for people living with HIV/AIDS and allies to forge personal relationships while working toward shared goals. The event drew 159 people from across the state to learn more about HIV/AIDS policy issues, participate in advocacy training sessions, meet with their legislators, and forge relationships with other HIV/AIDS advocates.
With many of our coalition partners under attack, 2011 was also a time for us to act on our core commitments to challenge the underlying structural inequalities such as poverty, racism, sexism, and homophobia that lead to huge health care disparities and disproportionate incidence of HIV in our state. NCAAN stood with the NC NAACP at their annual HKonJ March & Rally and raised awareness of the high prevalence of HIV among African Americans in North Carolina. We spoke out against funding cuts directly targeting Planned Parenthood, which is the only source of health care for thousands of low-income people across our state and one of the leaders in HIV prevention. And we worked alongside Equality NC to fight a harmful constitutional amendment that would enshrine homophobia -- a leading contributor to HIV-related stigma -- into our state constitution and would reduce access to affordable health care by preventing public employers from offering domestic partnership benefits. Although we suffered tough losses with our coalition partners in 2011, our work alongside them allowed us to educate our supporters about the interconnections among our struggles and to forge stronger ties with coalition partners with whom we'll continue to work toward our shared vision in the years ahead.
Our legislative victories came at a time of great promise for the future of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, with the UNC-based HPTN-052 clinical trial, which found that early antiretroviral treatment reduced HIV transmission by 96 percent. More than ever, it's clear that that early, uninterrupted access to HIV medications plays an essential role in preventing new HIV cases in addition to the direct health benefits to people living with HIV/AIDS.
An outpouring of public interest and volunteer engagement was key to our success. With the help of 104 active volunteers and with tremendous help from our community organizing interns - Chris Speer, Samantha Korb, Will Jackson, Julie McCracken, and Masia Nallo -- NCAAN educated thousands of North Carolinians about the importance of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs. By the end of the year, we identified over 5,000 Action Team members statewide -- people we can call upon to contact decision makers about HIV policy issues, as we did this past summer when we generated more than 75 phone calls to the NC Secretary of Health and Human Services in one day, urging continued support for HIV prevention programs. We also enlisted over 850 people in our Volunteer Team who want to help us with future community outreach and related volunteer events.
The success of our 2011 HIV/AIDS Advocacy Conference exemplifies our three-pronged commitment to: (1) educate people to become more effective HIV/AIDS advocates; (2) create opportunities to engage in strategic advocacy in support of responsible HIV/AIDS policies; and (3) build community by creating opportunities for people living with HIV/AIDS and allies to forge personal relationships while working toward shared goals. The event drew 159 people from across the state to learn more about HIV/AIDS policy issues, participate in advocacy training sessions, meet with their legislators, and forge relationships with other HIV/AIDS advocates.
With many of our coalition partners under attack, 2011 was also a time for us to act on our core commitments to challenge the underlying structural inequalities such as poverty, racism, sexism, and homophobia that lead to huge health care disparities and disproportionate incidence of HIV in our state. NCAAN stood with the NC NAACP at their annual HKonJ March & Rally and raised awareness of the high prevalence of HIV among African Americans in North Carolina. We spoke out against funding cuts directly targeting Planned Parenthood, which is the only source of health care for thousands of low-income people across our state and one of the leaders in HIV prevention. And we worked alongside Equality NC to fight a harmful constitutional amendment that would enshrine homophobia -- a leading contributor to HIV-related stigma -- into our state constitution and would reduce access to affordable health care by preventing public employers from offering domestic partnership benefits. Although we suffered tough losses with our coalition partners in 2011, our work alongside them allowed us to educate our supporters about the interconnections among our struggles and to forge stronger ties with coalition partners with whom we'll continue to work toward our shared vision in the years ahead.
