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Sign Up and Join Us! |
| To receive our
newsletters, important announcements about
events throughout the state of SC, and to be
able to access our Forums, sign up to be an
online member. |
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| Then take the next
step, and join up as an active member of
the Task Force. Read the
Requirements of Membership and join us at
our next Task Force meeting in Columbia. (see the
Events page for the date
of the upcoming meeting) |
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Our Mission: |
| The South Carolina HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force
is a non-partisan advocacy coalition of individuals,
non-profit organizations, and allies from across South
Carolina committed to improving the response to the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in our state. |
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Our Sponsor: AIDS United |
| The SC HIV/AIDS Care
Crisis Task Force is funded by
AIDS
United. |
AIDS
United supports
more than 400 grassroots organizations
annually that advocate for people living
with or affected by HIV/AIDS and the
organizations that serve them with
special emphasize on communities of
color, women and people living with
HIV/AIDS in the U.S. South. |
aidsunited.org |
AIDS
United’s policy
staff has been instrumental in the
development and implementation of major
public health policies that improve the
quality of life for those living with
HIV/AIDS and ensure evidence based
prevention programs to stop the spread
of new infections. |
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Action Calendar |
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| Visit the
Events page to
review complete information about all current
and upcoming events. |
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Special Community Events: |
| Under the
Affordable Care Act, states have been given the
option to expand their Medicaid programs. Not
only will this expansion bring more jobs to our
state; but thousands of fellow citizens earning
under 138% of the Federal Poverty Level will
have access to health care. |
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| Assisted by AIDS United,
and supported by our partners in "Accept ME SC", the Task Force will be
sponsoring press conferences, partner training classes, and community
panel forums around the state to educate the people in SC about how
expanding the Medicaid program will help our state and our neighbors. |
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| 3/18 |
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Spartanburg |
| 3/19 |
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Rock Hill |
| 3/20 |
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Greenville |
| 3/21 |
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Charleston |
| 4/TBA |
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Florence |
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http://schacctf.org/me4sc |
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Recent Advocacy Events: |
In Feb. 2013,
the Task Force held an Advocacy Day, going to
the State House to talk one-on-one with our
Legislators. We thanked them once again for the
ADAP funding put into the budget last year, and
spoke to them about the necessity of Medicaid
Expansion for SC.
This newest Advocacy Day was a follow-up to our
previous event held last December. |
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At
our last event, we met at the Statehouse in the morning for a special Press Conference,
with our new coalition ("Accept ME SC")
partners,
addressing the issues of the Affordable
Health Care Act and Medicaid Expansion.
Later that evening we hosted a
Community Forum / Panel Discussion.
You can watch the videos from each of those events
on our
YouTube Channel. |
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Come LIKE us on Facebook and stay
up-to-date with our
announcements on your wall!
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| We have an important general
Task Force meeting this upcoming Tuesday May 14th
from 10a - Noon at our regular location of the
Cecil Tillis Center.
This will be a very important and informational meeting as we discuss
the advocacy work that we have accomplished this year, our latest grant
report, and our plans for future Task Force activities. |
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Of course, taking stock of where we've come from and looking forward to
where we are going is very important, so we hope to see as many of you
as possible in Columbia next week. Please RSVP for this meeting by using
our online RSVP form, or emailing the
Communications Chair
at
communications@schacctf.org. |
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Another meeting will be held in Columbia later
next week (May 17th, 9am - 4pm) that some of our membership
might be interested in attending. The P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E. Voices
with Harvard Law, sponsored by SCHACCTF, will be holding a day
long training and information session about the need for
Medicaid Expansion in SC.
Because many of our state Legislators have expressed that they
are against Medicaid Expansion, we all need to be educated about
this important issue. If you, or others you know, have missed
out on any of the training the Task Force has previously
offered, please contact Deadra Malloy (x122) or veronica Brisco
(x113) at 803-254-6644 as soon as possible for more information.
Registration is required as seating is limited.
If you're a consumer/Member coming from outside of the Columbia
area, we are offering transportation assistance for this event.
Please contact our Liaison
Maiava Blackwell for details. |
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| What an amazing time the SC HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task
Force has been having for the last 6 months. We trained on the
beneficial changes Medicaid Expansion would bring to our state. We
created an alliance of South Carolina health care providers and other
agencies (Accept ME SC) that we trained and mobilized to advocate for
Medicaid Expansion. We held an incredible day of advocacy in Columbia
with a Press Conference, Capacity Building Training, monthly general
Task Force meeting, and Community Forum/Panel Discussion. |
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| But we didn't rest on our laurels after 2012 ended. We started the new
year with even more training. Then in February, we held our first State
House Advocacy Day of 2013 visiting and speaking with our Legislators.
For March, we - all of us representing the Task Force as our Chair
Johanna Haynes has told us so often - did an amazing job by holding four
Capacity Building Training/Community Forum Advocacy Events across the
state with the incredible help of our ASO partners. |
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| However, while some other groups might have stopped there thinking they
had done enough, we continued on because until Medicaid Expansion passes
in SC, we have a job to do. We were very lucky to have had SC Hospital
Association representative Rozalynn Goodwin participate as a panelist
and instructor at all of our Community Forum events in March. In return
for her help, the Task Force was given the opportunity to join forces
with the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) for their Healthcare
Workers Advocacy Day on April 30th. |
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Quite a
crowd met up at the SC Hospital Association for this advocacy
event. Roper/St. Francis brought a full bus load (50+) of
advocate up from Charleston for this important event. All
together there were more than 250 people in attendance for the
training to start the day. |
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There
were approximately a dozen and a half Task Force Members who
joined with SCHA today |
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Michael with our new member, Nike Jackson. Nike comes to us representing CareTeam and
is energized to be an advocate. |
Maiava (Task Force
Liaison) and
Michael (Communications Chair) |
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SCHA
gave each advocate a bagged lunch (healthy turkey sandwiches, baked
potato or vegetable chips, carrots sticks, and 100-calorie dessert packs)
and loaded us onto 6 buses headed to the State House. |
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| Catawba Care (Rock Hill) sent a crew to be part of today's
activities. Their advocates represented all aspects of the
agency: a board member and a staff members with two clients |
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Once on the buses
provided by SCHA to take us to the State House, we made sure we
knew who our "seat buddies" were so we could make sure that
everyone got back onto the bus when it was time to leave. |
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Some of
our finest SCHACCTF Members
ready to advocate for Medicaid expansion. |
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SCHA
bused several hundred advocates to the State House for today's
event. As this was mainly a health care worker advocacy day,
many people were dressed in scrubs or the uniforms from their
clinic of hospital. |
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More of
our happy energized SCHACCTF advocates |
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For
several of us, being at the State House today turned out to be a
day we were able to give some support to another issue besides
Medicaid Expansion and health care for PLWHA.
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While waiting for
the Senate and House to start their sessions, some of us went
back downstairs to attend and support a press conference where SC Equality
was announcing the introduction of the "Workplace Fairness
Bill". If passed, this bill would stop people from being
discriminated at or fired from their job because of their sexual
orientation. |
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| Upstairs in the
lobby, we submitted requests asking our Legislators to come out
for a few moments to speak to us. |
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As members of the SCHACCTF, we once again used our Task Force
Talking Points when we talked to our Legislators about the need
for Medicaid Expansion and how it would benefit PLWHA and even
help us tackle the growing HIV epidemic in our state.
Expanding
Medicaid under the ACA in SC
- SCHACCTF Talking Points (pdf) |
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Task
Force Members from Catawba Care speak with Robert Hayes, one of
our area Legislators. Since Catawba Care having been serving
York, Chester and Lancaster counties for over a decade, this
group had over 18 Senators and Representatives to reach. |
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Sadly,
there has also been organized opposition against the ACA and ME
in our state. These groups have already held several rallies on
the steps of the State House (this information was posted
earlier this year on our Facebook page). This day, there was a group of
people impersonating health care workers (dress in the blue
scrubs and red t-shirts). As Legislators came out to speak with
our group, these people pushed forward trying to distribute
literature and talk to our Legislators. These disruptive, rude
people were confronted by many of the REAL health care workers
in attendance who were able to successfully debate and disprove
the false facts presented by these anti-Medicaid Expansion
people. |
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After
speaking with most of their Legislators in the State House, a
group of Task Force members used their remaining time to visit
the Senate and Representative office buildings where they spoke
to many of the staff members and left copies of our Talking
Points for the Legislators. |
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| After two hours of
intensive advocacy work outside the Senate and House chambers
and in the Senate and House office building, we re-boarded the
buses, went back to SCHA, and then headed back to our homes. |
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What a great day! Working in
conjunction with our partners at SCHA, the Task Force was able
to hold it's Second Advocacy Day this year. Advocating for ADAP,
Medicaid Expansion and PLWHA is a full-time job that Task Force
Members take seriously.
We want to THANK
all the members who advocated today. You guys were awesome! |
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And to all those who weren't able to
attend, we ask that you please do your utmost best to attend the
meetings and Advocacy Days that we hold in the future. Your
presence and voice is very much needed if we are able to effect
more change on a statewide level. We're already advocated for
and received ADAP funding; now we need to keep up the pressure
to maintain ADAP, to advocate for Medicaid Expansion, and to
work and ensure that PLWHA are able to obtain services
throughout the state. |
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A Special Message from
Johanna Haynes
the Chair of the
SCHACCTF
Executive Committee: |
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| Last week
healthcare advocates joined professors, from Harvard Law School
Center for Health Policy and Innovation, in urging SC residents
to contact their legislators and let them know that Medicaid
Expansion is good for SC and to accept that expansion NOW. The
SC HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force reached out across the state
through Press Conferences, Capacity Building Training Sessions,
and Community Forums held in Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Greenville
and Charleston to educate our neighbors about Medicaid
Expansion. |
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| Tony Keck, the SC
Director of Health and Human Services (SC HHS), joined the
Community Forum/Discussion Panel in Rock Hill to represent
Governor Haley's position that ME is bad for SC and pouring more
money into an already broken system would not benefit poor South
Carolinians. Mr. Keck believes there are more pressing needs in
SC than insuring the poor - like roads, education and expanding
the Charleston port. |
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| Advocates say that
ME is not the broken system of which Mr. Keck is speaking. Our
current Medicaid program overwhelmingly insures the disabled and
elderly. The new expansion insures people for preventive care,
not waiting until health is poor and costs are high. Preventive
care is always cheaper than waiting for disease to take its
toll, leaving people unable to work and support themselves.
Advocates said that unintended outcomes of Medicaid expansion
would bring 44,000 new jobs to the state and generate $11B in
new revenue spending over the next 10 years. Advocates also
wanted to know why the director of SC Health and Human Services
is worrying about saving money in his program - at the expense
of the poor - so that the Secretary of Transportation and
Education can better fund those programs. |
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| There were many
people who worked behind the scenes to make last week's
community forums and educational activities happen. They were
Tracey Jackson from
Piedmont
Care in Spartanburg, Anita Case from
Catawba Care
in Rock Hill, Andy Hall from
AID
Upstate in Greenville and from Charleston, Shelli Quenga
from
Palmetto Project, Ashley Redmond from
Roper St. Francis' Ryan White program, Brad Childs
from
Lowcountry AIDS Services, Anne Bergin from
Trident United Way, and Catlin Carey from
United Way of
SC Association. A special thanks to Michael Bivens
and Maiava Blackwell. |
| Thank you all so
very much! |
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And a very special
Thank You to all those who
participated by presenting such invaluable information including
Professor Robert Greenwald and
Katherine Record from Harvard Law
School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, as well as
Rozalynn Goodwin from the SC
Hospital Association |
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| Under the
Affordable Care Act, states have been given the
option to expand their Medicaid programs. Not
only will this expansion bring more jobs to our
state; but thousands of fellow citizens earning
under 138% of the Federal Poverty Level will
have access to health care. |
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| Assisted by AIDS United, and
supported by our partners in "Accept ME SC", the Task Force sponsored
Press Conferences, Capacity Building Training classes, and Community
Forums/Discussion Panel around the state to educate the people in SC
about how expanding the Medicaid program will help our state and our
neighbors. The Task Force held these events in Spartanburg, Rock Hill,
Greenville and Charleston. |
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To learn more about each of these events,
to see pictures,
or to download the information that was distributed, please visit
http://schacctf.org/me4sc |
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(YouTube
Videos coming soon from these events!) |
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| AA Special Message from your Website Designer: |
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| Ever since I ended up
spending two of my birthdays (36th and 38th) in a hospital with doctors
telling me to call my family as I probably wasn't going to make it, not
to mention that I should have been in the hospital on my 40th birthday
too, well, being alive on a birthday has been a pretty GREAT experience.
While most people feel a little unhappy about getting older, I can't
help but be pleased as punch to still be alive after another year and
able to celebrate NOT being in a hospital. |
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While I'm happy to be getting a little older this year, I'm really extra happy
to be celebrating TWO birthdays on March 14th. One birthday will be me
turning 51 and the other birthday will be for THIS website being online
for it's first year!! Happy Birthday schacctf.org!
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| I have greatly enjoyed creating this site and updating it frequently. I
hope that you have found the site (and the companion sites listed below)
useful to helping you stay connected to the Task Force. If you ever have
any suggestions about how this site could better help YOU, please don't
hesitate to contact me, Michael Bivens (Communications Chair) at
communications@schacctf.org
with your feedback. |
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| Do you use Facebook? Have
you LIKED the
SCHACCTF
page? If not, we'd like to share with you just a bit of the posts
and information that you've been missing out since the first of the
year. |
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Don't miss out on any more of the important
news information posted on our Facebook page.
Join today, if you haven't already, and LIKE our page
http://facebook.com/schacctf |
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