HIV Health Services Planning Council
Community Outreach & Advocacy Committee Minutes
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
25 Van Ness, Room 330 A
5:30-7:00 p.m.

Committee Members Present: Walter Miller, Jesus Guillen, Joe McMurray, Cecilia Chung, Darnell Durio, Catherine Geanuracos
Committee Members Absent: Donald Frazier
Council Members Present: Brad Hume
Others Present: Leah Crask (Council Adm. Asst), Richard Bargetto (HIV Consumer Rights Advocate), Eric Ciasullo (AIDS Office)

1. Introductions

2. Review/Approve Agenda

Agenda item 7, SRO Report, was removed from the agenda. Council Member (CM ) Hume will also present item 8, Prevention Council Report – begin planning for joint meeting. The revised agenda was then approved by consensus.

3. Review/Approve Minutes
The minutes from November 12, 2003 were approved by consensus.

4. Announcements
CM Chung announced she is on the Transgender Steering Committee and they will be having a Holiday Party on December 18, 2003 in the Ceremonial Room at the LGBT Community Center from 6:00-9:00 p.m. The event is free and open to all.

5. Public Comment
Eric Ciasullo mentioned that the focus of his work in the AIDS Office is work place re-entry. He comes to this Committee’s meetings when he can as a representative for the AIDS Office.

6. Advocacy Report
Richard Bargetto handed out the HIV Consumer Rights Advocacy Project report for the previous month. He mentioned last month was a very busy month and this time of year seems to be more active in general. He reviewed some of the key cases of the report and the Committee asked questions. He also mentioned that for many clients there is a fear of retaliation if a grievance is filed with an agency from which they are still using services.

7. Prevention Council Report – begin planning for joint meeting
CM Geanuracos mentioned she put this item on the agenda because one of the charges of this Committee is to make sure there is an on-going collaboration with the HIV Prevention Planning Council.

CM Hume announced the joint working group with the Prevention Council has come up with a definition of prevention with Positives. The working group has met four times and the definition has been approved by the HIV Prevention Planning Council and will need to be approved by HIV Health Services Council at the January 2004 meeting. The Prevention Council is going to have a standing committee for Prevention with Positives starting in January 2004. The working group has disbanded and the Prevention committee will take its place. CM Hume mentioned it would be good to have two or more Council Members going to these Committee meetings to represent the CARE side. There is also a possible of having two designated Care Council seats on the Committee. At the work group, in general the number of Care Council Members present has been disappointing. Also having standard Care Council participation on this Committee might make it possible to have only one joint meeting with the Prevention Council each year.

Eric Ciasullo mentioned there is also a group in the AIDS Office meeting about Prevention with Positives. They had a focus group with providers to talk about how to better engage people living with HIV and to discuss holding a day long community action forum. Provider participation was extremely low, therefore they were discouraged to plan a day long event at this time. At the next Committee meeting the topic of how to better engage HIV+ people will be on the agenda, in order to give some feedback to the AIDS Office.

CM Geanuracos asked that an announcement be sent out to the Yahoo! Group to see if any Council Members are interested in attending the Prevention with Positives Committee. Hopefully by January a date for the first Committee meeting will be known.

8. Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS/HIV (HOPWA) Loan Committee Seat-VOTE
CM McMurray and CM Miller expressed interested in the HOPWA Loan Committee seat. After discussion, the Committee voted by ballot on the new HOPWA Loan Committee representative. CM McMurray will hold the second HOPWA Loan Committee seat. (For a record of the vote, please contact Council Support).

9. Community Input Activities Planning
The Committee discussed asking the Council at the January meeting if there is any strong interest for having certain populations as areas of focus for the Community Input activities.

The Committee has discussed focusing on populations or on issues. CM Geanuracos encouraged the Committee members to get input on these options from people outside the Committee. Some possible populations included:
· Latino
· Asian/Pacific Islanders
· African Americans (Committee decided this group would not be a focus since the assessment is going on this year)
Some possible issues mentioned were:
· What would you change in your services?
· What services consumers believe are important (important for feedback from prioritization)
· Employment services- whether vocational training and counseling should also be available

CM Chung mentioned she would like to see a commitment from the Council to really look at the results of Community input and include them in the decision making process. CM Hume mentioned a large scale event, where many people are reached, then the data seems to hold more meaning for the Council.

The Committee mentioned doing a bigger Community input event before prioritization, possible focusing on Service Category Priorities or Employment Services. A smaller scale event could be held in June/July, after prioritization, for Latino and/or API people living with HIV.

The Committee discussed how to decide which group to focus on. The Committee discussed concentrating on receiving more qualitative data as a result of the Community input activity. At the January Committee meeting, the Committee will discuss what to present to the Full Council. Before the next Committee meeting the committee agreed to think about what expertise they have and also to contact the Planning Committee to see if they have any recommendations for a focus which would relate to the prioritization process.

10. Planning Council Brochure
CM Durio brought in samples of a new designers work. The Committee discussed having a new designer complete the brochure. CM Durio agreed to invite Michael Carr to the next Committee meeting.

It was suggested that in future the Committee could look at the possibility of using student designers or of having a couple of designers to choose from. Currently, in the interest of time, the Committee decided to move forward with this process.

11. Next Meeting Date and Agenda Items
The next meeting will be Wednesday, January 14, 2004 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Possible agenda items include:
· Brochure development/ Michael Carr
· Advocacy and SRO Report
· Presentation at the Council Meeting
· Community input planning
· Treatment on Demand application/information
· Prevention for Positives Discussion- how to better engage HIV+ people

The meeting was adjourned at 6:53 p.m.

Meeting minutes are considered to be in DRAFT form until reviewed and approved by Council attendees.

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