“The AIDS community has been
offered a golden opportunity: to serve thousands of people with HIV/AIDS
and bring us one step closer to ending the AIDS epidemic… it is one we
cannot miss.”
Mark Ishaug, President and CEO, AIDS United
In July 2010 the Obama Administration's Social Innovation Fund (SIF), administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNS), awarded a $3.6
million grant to AIDS United to improve access to care for people living
with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). On May 16th, 2011 FCAA and partners brought
more than 40 grantmakers together in-person and online to explore this
monumental new opportunity for the private sector to leverage
non-HIV/AIDS Federal resources to ensure that PLWHA in the U.S. have
access to primary medical care and specific care.
In February 2011 AIDS United announced the 10 SIF grantees,
representing community-driven, collaborative programs aimed at improving
individual health outcomes and on strengthening local services. Mark Ishaug
facilitated a panel of three SIF grantees to highlight some of the
exciting and innovative approaches now taking place across the country,
including: building a network of Community Health Workers to address
barriers to care for African American women living in poor neighborhoods
in Washington, D.C.; a collaborative project with targeted
interventions aimed at reaching the most complex HIV-positive
populations in New York City, including those dealing with homelessness,
substance abuse and/or mental illness; and a collaborative network of
care model to improve entry, access to, and retention in HIV care for
women of color living with HIV in San Diego County.
Dr. David Holtgrave (Johns Hopkins University)
highlighted the important opportunity the AIDS United-SIF grant offers
for grantmakers to engage in the successful implementation of the
“Increasing Access to Care” pillar of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
In effort to help demonstrate that investments in access to care,
through the SIF grant, have resulted in sufficient and cost-efficient
health gains, Dr. Holtgrave is currently leading a National Evaluation
to answer critical questions regarding the number of clients served,
types of and cost of services, and the impact of services on the lives
of clients. The evaluation is also designed to look at the barriers
clients are encountering in accessing medical care, as well if the
collaborative design of grantee projects strengthens community networks
of HIV/AIDS providers. The JHU team is also providing technical
assistance to help build the evaluation capacity of local grantees to
measure their collective impact on individuals, systems and communities.
As the CNS requires a 2:1 match
from the private sector in effort to create a funding pool of more than
$10 million annually, this public-private partnership offers new
opportunities for investment among the broader philanthropic sector. In
the day’s final panel, Steve Gunderson (Council on
Foundations) asked a panel of funders why they were attracted to
supporting the Social Innovation Fund. The panel, including Len McNally (New York City Community Trust), Margaret O’Bryon (Consumer Health Foundation) and Ray Sacchetti
(Bristol-Myers Squibb) agreed that this funding opportunity arrived at
the most opportune time in terms of scientific advancements and
political will (health reform, NHAS, etc.), and that to have a federal
partner investing in organizations that understand the importance of a
community-based approach will help reform how treatment can be
successfully delivered to the public. The panel also made an
urgent call to break down current funding siloes, as the issue of access
to care is broader than HIV/AIDS or any one disease alone, and no
funder – small or large – has enough money to solve it alone.