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Close Up on the New Michigan AIDS Fund
Feature article, Michigan HIV & STD News, Fall 2005 Issue
For the past several years the Michigan AIDS Fund (MAF)
has had a low profile. However Executive Director Stacey Barbas plans to lead
Michigan’s oldest private AIDS funding source into a future of renewed
visibility and in new directions. Michigan HIV & STD News took the opportunity
to speak with Barbas in September, just prior to the FY 06/07 MAF grant
announcements.
Following the resignation of former Executive Director Glen
Jack in 2002, the MAF Board decided to step back and look at the big picture
(see Michigan News, Summer Issue). The Kellogg Foundation provided a grant for
the work of a transition committee, resulting in a new mission and a strategic
plan with rededication and commitment to HIV prevention as well as plans to
become involved in public policy. “We’ve really done a lot in the past four
months since our strategic plan was adopted,” said Barbas.
Barbas said MAF now has a fund development plan for the next
three years, which includes building up the Board of Directors by three new
members per year to provide a more diversified base for leadership. Last year
the funding cycles ended for three major foundations, so exploring new avenues
of funding has to be part of the plan if MAF is to remain viable. “We are like
other non-profits struggling to raise dollars,” said Barbas. One of the new
approaches is house parties sponsored by MAF Board members. Besides raising
funds these events will also raise HIV & AIDS awareness among new audiences.
Because MAF is a private funding source, it has more
flexibility than the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) in the
programs it can support. With the new focus on HIV prevention programs comes a
renewed commitment to fund syringe exchange programs. “Our board is very, very
committed to syringe access and so they are working really hard to do some fund
development, and looking at some specific funding just for syringe access.” To
this end MAF has been working in partnership with the National AIDS Fund, which
collaborates with the Tides Foundation and the Levi Strauss syringe access
program.
Due to the loss of foundation grants for this year’s grant
cycle, the current funding is a little less than past years, so there were no
new programs funded, “but we were able to maintain almost all of our
continuation funding, “ said Barbas. “We’re working with organizations that have
proved to us that they know what they are doing.” (See the box of MAF funded
programs for FY 05/06 on page 13.) “Ultimately, we’d like to reach out to where
there are gaps in services, but we don’t have the capacity to do that right
now.”
Besides providing grants to HIV prevention programs around
the state, MAF also runs a few of its own programs: an HIV/AIDS specific
Americorps project in metro Detroit; MPowerment for young African American MSM
(men who have sex with men) in Detroit; and the Positive Perspective Speakers
Bureau.
Part of the new MAF strategic plan is to look at a policy
agenda. The consulting firm hired for the transition process will do another set
of interviews around public policy.
HIV/AIDS Alliance of Michigan (HAAM) members and other policy experts will be
asked what they think are public policy issues for HIV/AIDS – prevention in
particular. “To me policy stretches from awareness and advocacy to literally
influencing legislation. So we’re going to do an analysis around the state of
the policy issues folks who have really been working in HIV think are most
important,” Barbas said.
MAF is going to compile that information and then conduct one
or two meetings, “a think tank of people” to determine the most appropriate
agenda for MAF to pursue regarding public policy. They have applied to the
University of Michigan for an intern and are still seeking funding for the
project. MAF is currently working with HAAM, starting the process with a small
grant from the National AIDS Fund. “We are still trying to frame our policy
agenda. I know that we will be doing work around needle exchange and syringe
access,” said Barbas.
Collaboration is key for MAF. Working closely with MDCH,
Michigan’s primary funding fiduciary for HIV/AIDS dollars, MAF staff ensures
that there is no duplication of programming. MAF has a budget of under $1
million this year and a staff of five including Barbas, a full time program
assistant and three part-time staff: Grant Manager and Americorps City
Supervisor Terry Ryan, Fund Development Specialist David Coulter and Americorps
Team Coordinator Michele Folkers.
MAF also works closely with the state and others to
facilitate special initiatives. Detroit has been selected for a Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pilot project to reach small business
owners in high prevalence areas, as well as union members and leaders and
connect them to HIV prevention. Detroit was chosen because of past involvement
with the National AIDS Fund and the Business Responds to AIDS and Labor Responds
to AIDS Programs (BRTA/LRTA). Rosalind Andrews Worthy (Gospel Against AIDS
founder and Executive Director) is working as a consultant on this project and
the Americorps team will be used to canvas 300 businesses in high prevalence
areas of Detroit.
The Detroit Business and Labor HIV/AIDS Outreach Summit, a
special invitation event for local business leaders and union members and
leaders, held in downtown Detroit on October 31, was part of a collaborative
among the CDC, MDCH and the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion
with assistance from MAF. Getting small businesses, like beauty salons and dry
cleaners, in high prevalence communities in Detroit involved will impact on
community awareness of HIV/AIDS.
Americorps
MAF is one of six of the 29 National AIDS Fund partnership
organizations that participate in the Americorps program, which provides local
HIV/AIDS service organizations with volunteer Americorps team members. The
National AIDS Fund Americorps program provides opportunities in Washington, DC;
Tulsa, OK; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Indianapolis, IN; and in Detroit. MAF
does recruiting at the local colleges and universities. Some team members
volunteer through local community based organizations. MAF is trying to nurture
people in the community to become new leaders in the HIV field. Terry Ryan runs
the MAF Americorps program.
“Our philosophy is to hire a very diverse group,” Barbas
said. For example, they have hired the young person going to med school that
needs hands on experience in this kind of work and also a person who may not
have had opportunities to achieve in their life.
This year Michigan has a seven member team providing services in metro Detroit.
“Unfortunately our costs have gone up,” said Barbas. The MAF
share used to be $1,000 per year per member; this has increased to $6,500.
Agencies are asked to help with the matching funds and are selected because of a
known history of managing volunteers well. “It’s imperative for us to have a
member go in there and be challenged, coached, and receive some guidance and
supervision, while still having the opportunity to be creative,” said Barbas.
Through a partnership with MDCH, the Americorps team members
are provided training in counseling and testing and outreach. Because the HAPIS
training unit is so well recognized nationally for its top notch trainers and
programs, HAPIS trainers travel to Washington, DC, to provide training for all
Americorps team members nationally.
The Americorps workers are evaluated on a quarterly basis by
each agency. The National AIDS Fund also conducts pre-and post tests with each
member about their experience. MAF does an ongoing evaluation on a less formal
basis. Ryan deals with the agencies on a regular basis to handle with any issues
that arise. Prior to hiring, the prospective Americorps workers go through a
series of interviews, which they themselves have to initiate, to get the right
fit. “But sometimes it just doesn’t work out,” said Barbas.
This year there are three returning members and four new
ones. Questions MAF considers when deciding on selecting returning members
include: did they get the most out of the program; and are they really ready yet
to go out on their own? Every year MAF rotates participating agencies in the
metro Detroit area.
This fall Barbas and Ryan brought along members of the
Americorps team for a moving presentation to the MAF Board of Directors. Barbas
described the presentation, “We have a woman on our Americorps team, a second
year member, who three years ago was pregnant, drug addicted, and a commercial
sex worker. She saw a van pull up to her one night with two women in it from
Alternatives for Girls, who said to her, ‘Hey, do you need a coat, need a
sandwich, need some help?’ They started talking to her; she started talking to
them. Alternatives for Girls has a wonderful program for sex workers. She
started in that program and eventually worked as a peer educator. She applied to
the Americorps team last year, worked at Alternatives for Girls, and then was
hired in for a second year. Last year she got her GED and three weeks ago she
enrolled at Wayne State. Terry and I both believe that’s what this program is
about.” MAF now has about 10 graduates of the Americorps program working in
HIV/AIDS.
“I think it’s one of the best programs we do because we’ve
provided over 100,000 hours for agencies in the last nine years. At $10 an hour
that’s more than $1 million in services,” said Barbas.
For more information on the Michigan AIDS Fund, call
248-395-3244. A new improved website www.michaidsfund.org will be up and running
early next year.
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