Tag: HIV/AIDS

South Arlington residents worry about Amazon’s impact

BUSINESS | Many in Virginia are excited to be the location of Amazon’s second headquarters, but some residents in South Arlington, a multi-ethnic area south of U.S. Route 50, are worried that it will cause rising rents and displacement. (Curbed, 12/13)

…some urban policy experts say South Arlington may see adverse effects from HQ2, such as an increase in income inequality and gentrification.

“You’d expect the biggest impacts of Amazon to be in easy commuting distance, and South Arlington is a prime target for that,” says Jenny Schuetz, a fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “A lot of these neighborhoods are likely to be pretty vulnerable because they have a lot of older apartment buildings, garden apartments, and older single-family houses that aren’t in great shape.”

PHILANTHROPY | Joi Ridley, director of communications at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, discusses how grantmakers can evaluate their capacity-building support to make it fit the needs of its grantee partners. (CEP, 12/13)

HIV/AIDS | Here’s a look at why HIV/AIDS funding is declining globally and across the US. (Inside Philanthropy, 12/12)

IMMIGRATION
– These grandmothers created the Overground Railroad, a caravan of activists grandmothers that travel to meet asylum seekers once they are released from detention to give them food and other comfort. (YES! Magazine, 12/17)

– LGBTQ caravan migrants may have to ‘prove’ their gender or sexual identity at US border (The Conversation, 11/30)

ENVIRONMENT | Until We Confront Capitalism, We Will Not Solve the Climate Crisis (Truthout, 12/16)

REMINDER | Daily WRAG readers, we want your opinion! In order to improve your reading experience, we ask that you complete this short survey by Wednesday, December 19 to let us know what you like and what could be better on the blog.

A poem for the arts in Arlington.

– Kendra

A push for more education on World AIDS Day

HIV/AIDS | Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. Metro Weekly spoke with DeMarc Hickson, executive director of US Helping Us, a DC organization committed to reducing HIV infection in the Black community, about the importance of education in fighting stigma. (Metro Weekly, 11/29)

An increase in community education can help to reduce the stigma around HIV, and that it can also, in reducing the stigma, encourage individuals that may have anxiety about coming in to get tested, people who may want to know their status but are scared to know. If somebody hasn’t been tested in the past 12 months, or three months as a transgender individual or a gay and bisexual man, then get tested so that you can know your status.

HEALTHCARE
– A study has found that pregnant women are increasingly dependent on methamphetamine. Doctors are working to address the crisis. (NPR, 11/29)

– Enrollment in Virginia’s expanded Medicaid program is beating projections (WaPo, 11/29)

PHILANTHROPY | Why foundations should consider aligning their investments with their mission to create greater impact. (YES! Magazine, 11/27)

PUBLIC SAFETY | What Border Security and Police Violence Have in Common (Citylab, 11/29)

EDUCATION | The DC Council is considering a bill that would require that all individualized education programs of blind and visually impaired students to include braille and require that schools only buy textbooks that can be easily translated to braille. (DC Line, 11/29)

WORKFORCE | Federal workers have been told to avoid workplace talk about impeachment and #resistance until the day after Election Day 2020. (NPR, 11/30)

Social Sector Job Openings 

Director of Administration | Public Welfare Foundation– New!
Process Systems Expert | Client of SHG Advisors– New!
Programs Manager | DC127– New!
Development Manager | DC127– New!
Director of Development (East Coast) | Rocketship Public Schools– New!
Director of Development | ECHO– New!
Executive Director | The Volgenau Foundation
Gifts and Grants Administrator | Community Foundation for Northern Virginia
Development Associate | Alliance for Justice
Fellow, Civic Engagement | The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment
Manager of Communications & Events | The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia
Director of “Count the Region” | The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia
President | Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers
Receptionist/Administrative Assistant | Exponent Philanthropy
OST Community Impact Program Manager | United Way of the National Capital Area
Development Coordinator | National Building Museum
Grants Program Manager | Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County
Special Grants Coordinator/Program Analyst I | Legal Services Corporation
Marketing/Membership Demand Generation Specialist/Digital Marketer | BoardSource
Office Assistant & Member Relations | BoardSource
Executive Assistant | Virginia Hospital Medical Brigade
Vice President of Programs | Gill Foundation
Program Associate for Strategy, Equity, and Research | Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation

Hiring? Post your job on WRAG’s job board and get it included in the Daily! Free for members; $60/60 days for non-members. Details here.

Community Calendar

To add an event to WRAG’s community calendar, email Rebekah Seder. Click here to view the community calendar.

This quiz can guess your favorite pizza topping based on your choice in puppies.

– Kendra

Daniel Gets “MORE” with the Washington AIDS Partnership

The MORE team is pictured here.

By Channing Wickham, executive director of Washington AIDS Partnership and Jennifer Jue, senior program officer at Washington AIDS Partnership

There are over 13,000 people living with HIV in Washington, D.C., and many of them struggle to access and stay in care and reach HIV viral suppression, the primary way we can prevent further transmission of HIV and end the local HIV epidemic. When an individual living with HIV is successfully engaged in care, their HIV virus becomes so low that it is undetectable and they are no longer able to transmit the virus.

In the District, people living with HIV often face multiple barriers to care and traditional medical services may not have worked for them, whether because of stigma, a lack of cultural competency, or inaccessible services. “Daniel,” one such resident, experienced this before participating in one of the Washington AIDS Partnership’s (WAP) most innovative and successful programs to date – the Mobile Outreach Retention and Engagement initiative (MORE):

When “Daniel” enrolled in MORE, he was depressed, had uncontrolled HIV, and was not working. He was living with a family member, who moved out and took all of the home’s furniture, drastically reducing his quality of life. Daniel had always been proud of his independence and as he became overwhelmed with his illness, he lost confidence in himself. With the support of the MORE program, he was able to engage in care, including successfully recovering from surgery at home. His self-esteem increased, and he recently found a job, telling his MORE provider, “I can do it.”

MORE grew out of a joint effort by WAP and the D.C. Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration to figure out how to help people living with HIV to access and stay in care when traditional medical services have not worked for them and they are facing multiple barriers to care. To respond to this issue, WAP secured over $1 million in national funding and developed a request for applications (RFA) for organizations providing medical care to HIV-positive individuals. The RFA’s focus was a novel one: tailor medical services to the unique needs of each patient, and meet them where they are. The two overarching goals were: helping people access and stay in care; and improved health outcomes using innovative strategies such as medical visits in the home, evening hours, and providing care at non-traditional sites in the community.

After a competitive application process, Whitman-Walker Health (WWH) was selected and received funding to implement the Mobile Outreach Retention and Engagement (MORE) initiative. The initiative had a team-based approach with both clinical staff (physician assistant and nurse practitioners) and non-clinical staff (two care navigators and a community health educator). The MORE team provided medical care, counseling, and supportive services in the home and at pop-up community sites. Outcomes for the initiative are exciting: thousands of medical and support visits for patients who were out of care or struggling with staying in care, and real improvements in terms of engagement in care and lower HIV viral loads.

For more information about the initiative and its outcomes, click here.

What it’s like to be undocumented and homeless in the District

IMMIGRATION
– ICE has confirmed that it has arrested 132 individuals in the Greater Washington region, including 12 in DC. Although the District is a sanctuary city, undocumented immigrants face the threat of deportation while being unable to access city services, especially housing and shelters. (Dcist, 7/25)

Undocumented immigrants have been able to obtain a “limited-purpose” drivers license or identification card since 2014, but advocates say they are nearly impossible to obtain for people who are also experiencing homelessness.

“We haven’t been able to get them for anyone because they require original documents from the country you came from,” says Eliot Gold, a case manager with Miriam’s Kitchen, a D.C. organization that provides resources to homeless residents. “When you’re living on the streets and you’re undocumented, you don’t have the original copy of your birth certificate from Honduras…your stuff gets wet, you get robbed. People don’t have the documents to make that program helpful.”

– Arlington citizenship fund has too much cash; county says donors should give elsewhere (WaPo, 7/25)

RACIAL EQUITY | A few weeks ago, WRAG members had the opportunity to see #poolparty, a play about the US’s history of segregated pools. In a new blog, Tamara Lucas Copeland, WRAG’s president, recounts her own experience with public pools in Virginia. (Daily, 7/26)

HIV/AIDS | Efforts to slash HIV infections in D.C. stall, while other STD cases are rising (WaPo, 7/24)

Channing Wickham, executive director of Washington AIDS Partnership, said this about the report, “WAP is pleased to see that new HIV cases continue to be at about the same historic low level that we saw last year. We’re disappointed that there hasn’t been another significant drop, but there’s a lot of useful information in the report, and it will help us to further target our efforts in the coming year. We look forward to partnering with HAHSTA to achieve our goal of cutting new HIV infections in half by 2020.”

CENSUS 2020 | The US Census Bureau has decided not to have an advisory committee dedicated to the upcoming census. (NPR, 7/25)

TRANSPORTATION | The District is losing two of its dockless bike companies due to the city’s regulations. There are still five companies operating in the city. (WaPo, 7/25)

ENVIRONMENT | If You Liked The Weather This Week, You’ll Love Climate Change (WAMU, 7/24)

Tour the Renwick’s Burning Man exhibit virtually here.

– Kendra

For DC seniors living with HIV, affordable housing is rare

HOMELESSNESS/ HIV/AIDS
– Almost 13,000 people are living with HIV in DC, and 43% are 55 or older. Many of them lack support networks as they grew up when the diagnosis was even more stigmatized and treatment was not as effective. Due to this, and the lack of affordable housing options in the city, homelessness is common in this population. (Street Sense Media, 6/13)

Earlene Budd, a 59-year old, transgender woman who has experienced homelessness and was diagnosed with HIV 25 years ago, has had a similar experience to many of the clients who make up her case load at HIPS, a health clinic dedicated to serving sex workers and drug users in the H Street Corridor. “I know what it means to be homeless because, first and foremost, I’m somebody who slept on the streets of D.C. when I was younger and my family put me out.”

She has worked with homeless and HIV positive populations for 18 years through the D.C. Department of Health, the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness and other organizations. In the last several years, she said, the gradual decrease in federal HOPWA [Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program] funding Kharfen identified has cut down the number of housing programs that serve people with HIV.

Related: This article mentions Joseph’s House and HIPS, which are both grantees of the Washington AIDS Partnership and sites that the Partnership’s Health Corps program members are regularly placed.

– For the third year, some DC news websites will be releasing a collection of stories investigating the barriers and solutions to ending the homeless crisis in DC. Read it here. (DC Homeless Crisis, 6/28)

NONPROFITS | WRAG recently hosted the first session of its Nonprofit Summer Learning Series, with Booz Allen Hamilton, which focused on how to create authentic partnerships between funders and their grantee partners. In a new blog, Sean Herpolsheimer, WRAG’s 2018 Summer Fellow, discusses the key takeaways from the session. (Daily, 6/28)

Related: Make sure you register for the next session in the Nonprofit Summer Learning Series here!

CSR | Shannon Schuler, chief purpose officer at PwC and 2017 Institute for CSR faculty member, shares her thoughts on how CSR efforts much change and adapt to stay relevant. (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6/27)

ARTS & HUMANITIES | Mount Vernon Named One Of The Country’s Most Endangered Historic Sites As It Fights A Natural Gas Project (WAMU, 6/27)

EDUCATION | How the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that public sector unions can no longer compel union dues will impact teacher unions and their recent advocacy. (NYT, 6/27)

MENTAL HEALTH | Two new studies found that the murdering of Black Americans by police officers who rarely, if ever, face consequences, affects the mental health of Black Americans, even if they are not personally touched by the death. (Citylab, 6/27)

Here’s some MJ just because…

– Kendra

New work requirements could impact some Medicaid participants

HEALTHCARE | The administration has announced that the federal government will allow states to test work requirements for Medicaid. There are more than 74 million people participating in the program but this would only affect some, since adults with disabilities and children make up a large portion of its enrollees. (KHN, 1/11)

Adding a work requirement to Medicaid would mark one of the biggest changes to the program since its inception in 1966. It is likely to prompt a lawsuit from patient advocacy groups, which claim the requirement is inconsistent with Medicaid’s objectives and would require an act of Congress.

The document says who should be excluded from the new work requirements — including children and people being treated for opioid abuse — and offers suggestions as to what counts as “work.” Besides employment, it can include job training, volunteering or caring for a close relative.

PHILANTHROPY | Congratulations to Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, President & CEO of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, for being awarded the Philanthropy Women 2018 Wonder Woman Award for Leadership in Women’s Funds! (Philanthropy Women, 1/8)

VETERANS | Boeing will commit $10 million to veterans’ recovery and rehabilitation programs and military transition services to support the Military Service Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. (PND Blog, 1/11)

ARTS & HUMANITIES | Actors in Sovereignty, a new play premiering at Arena Stage, discuss the US’s treatment of Native Americans and their history. (DC Theatre Scene, 1/10)

PUBLIC SAFETY | They were friends as kids, then on opposite sides of the law. Now they’re mentoring D.C. teens together. (WaPo, 1/11)

HIV/AIDS | The DC Health Department has launched a new ad encouraging people to talk to their doctors about the HIV prevention drug, PrEP. (WUSA9, 1/10)

IMMIGRATION |On Wednesday, ICE agents conducted a nationwide operation targeting 7-Elevens in hopes of finding undocumented workers. They made 21 arrests. (WaPo, 1/10)

TRANSIT | Here are the details of the recent Metro proposal to refund riders if a bus or train delay of at least 15 minutes makes riders late to their destination. (NextCity, 1/8)

Do you think you could finish a marathon running backwards? These people did.

– Kendra