With HIV incidence rates in Philadelphia nearly five times the national average, a committee of the Philadelphia City Council last week convened a public hearing to discuss how the city should be responding to the ongoing epidemic.
Nearly two-dozen HIV/AIDS advocates, activists and researchers presented testimony Oct. 27 to the council’s Committee on Public Health and Human Services, with the consensus that, while many consider the disease to have abated, it’s still just as virulent and deserves more attention and additional funding.
The committee is comprised of six members, and committee chair Marian Tasco and vice chair Donna Reed Miller were present for the hearing.
The hearing drew testimony from such groups as Philadelphia FIGHT, Proyecto SOL Filadelfia, BEBASHI, Prevention Point and The Colours Organization, Inc.
Robert Burns, Colours executive director, focused his testimony on the impact of HIV on communities of color and the disproportionate funding such organizations often receive. African Americans comprised 66 percent of all new HIV infections last year, but only about 42 percent of city HIV/AIDS funding is given to organizations that specifically target minority communities, said Burns.
“City Council had the opportunity to see and understand that the HIV epidemic is still an issue within our city,” he noted. “We talked about how funders do want to do as much as possible to support the community-based organizations, but this is a time when we’re so resource-strapped. So I think they were able to recognize that there is a need for further collaboration and partnerships and the need for innovation in addressing and attacking HIV in our community.”
City health officials also spoke out during the meeting, including out Deputy Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz and AIDS Activities Coordinator Office Director Jane Baker.
Dr. Amy Nunn, associate professor at Brown University Medical School, said that instead of focusing on the city’s alarming HIV statistics, she’s proposing proactive remedies to reduce those numbers.
Nunn suggested the city needs to reallocate resources to certain geographic “hot zones” that have the highest HIV prevalence, like Germantown, North Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia. She also proposed the city launch a media campaign targeting at-risk populations and implement comprehensive sex education in the public schools.
In addition, Nunn addressed the need for increased attention to social and economic drivers of HIV. “We can’t just be thinking strictly behaviorally, but rather need to look at the complex social issues that put people at risk: Things like the incarceration of black men or poverty are having an impact, and that’s something that we need to look at.”
Many of the witnesses testified that the city needs to invest more in reaching out to heterosexual populations.
Due to the growing rate of HIV among heterosexual African Americans, Nunn began working with the city earlier this year to create a program that would enlist black faith leaders in the fight against the disease.
“Growing up in Arkansas, I saw just how important black churches can be to their communities for any kind of social issues, in particular anything to do with social justice,” Nunn said, adding that, after she arrived in Philadelphia several years ago, the city’s vast number of African-American churches renewed her commitment to begin a discussion about HIV. “A lot of people told me black pastors don’t want to take on this issue, but I wasn’t convinced that was the case.”
Nunn connected with The Rev. Dr. Marguerite Handy of the Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and, this past summer, began organizing focus groups of black pastors and imams to involve them in HIV prevention efforts. The participants were very receptive, she said. Several faith leaders stepped up to help organize the Interfaith Health Action Alliance of Philadelphia, the Kaiser Family Foundation donated a wealth of HIV/AIDS educational materials and AACO offered volunteers to provide HIV testing.
IHAAP will host a week of awareness raising, testing and prayer activities Nov. 8-14 targeted to African-American communities of faith.
“I think we have to have people from all walks of life coming together to build partnerships that are sustainable,” Nunn said. “I think this Interfaith Health Action Alliance is a great example of what can be done when people from across all sectors come together to support a social-justice issue.” Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].