ORDINANCE
WHEREAS, in 2005, the Illinois General Assembly published findings that HIV/AIDS in the African-American community is a crisis separate and apart from the overall issue of HIV/AIDS in other communities; and
WHEREAS, to mitigate this ongoing crisis, the legislature passed Public Act 94-629 that established the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Fund used for grants to programs dedicated to preventing the transmission of HIV in impacted African American communities as well as other programs and activities including, but not limited to, preventing and treating HIV/AIDS, the creation of an HIV/AIDS service delivery system, and the administration of the act; and
WHEREAS funding comes from appropriations by the General Assembly, federal funds, and other public resources to provide funding for communities in Illinois to create an HIV/AIDS service delivery system that reduces the disparity of HIV infection and AIDS cases concentrated in impacted African-American neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, since more than 50% of all recently diagnosed cases affect African-American Chicagoans, a City of Chicago African-American HIV/AIDS Response Fund administered by the Department of Public Health shall be created. Furthermore, a line-item shall be added to the City of Chicago's Department of Health budget titled "Chicago African-American HIV/AIDS Response Fund". An equitable portion of funds appropriated annually by the City of Chicago for HIV/AIDS mitigation shall be set aside to fund this line item; and
WHEREAS, when providing grants pursuant to this fund, the Department of Public Health shall give priority to the development of comprehensive medical and social services in a clinical setting to African-Americans at risk of infection from or infected with HIV/AIDS in neighborhoods of Chicago determined as having the highest concentration of African-Americans living with this disease and
WHEREAS the Chicago Department of Public Health, acknowledging the real challenges that ...
Click here for full text