National Minority AIDS Council

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Contents 1 Why There Is a Need for the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) 2 NMAC Conferences 3 History of the National Minority AIDS Council 4 NMAC Facilities and Staff

[edit] Why There Is a Need for the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC)

The [1] National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), located on U Street in Northwest Washington, DC, has developed leadership in communities of color to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS since 1987.[2] NMAC is the only national organizaton dedicated to raising awareness around HIV/AIDS in communities of color and leveraging local resources to mitigate the diseases impact on minorities.

Its importance in the fight against HIV/AIDS cannot be overstated. Since the first description of AIDS symptoms were published in June 1981, in “Pneumocystis Pneumonia – Los Angeles,” in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), HIV/AIDS has been closely associated with gay white men. In reality, AIDS has disproportionately impacted minorities from the beginning. A nurse named Joan Vileno, of Montifore, a health care facility in the Bronx, New York, recounted in Jane Gross' article, “The State of AIDS, 25 Years After the First, Quiet Mentions; The Nurse”, published in New York Times that the majority of her patients in the early 1980s were minority heterosexual IDUs. Many delayed seeking medical care due to AIDS' close association with homosexuality. All of her patients died, many of them estranged from their families.

This situation laid the foundation for the AIDS epidemic in the United States today. Minorities alone account for over 70% of all HIV/AIDS cases in the United States today. African Americans and Latinos, who each represent 18% of the U.S. population, have been particularly hard hit HIV/AIDS, accounting for over 50% and 18% of all new HIV cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year, respectively. In 2005, the CDC reported that African American adults and adolescents are diagnosed with AIDS at 10 times the rate of whites, and nearly 3 times the rate of Latinos. Minorities account for well over half of the nearly 1 million lives lost to HIV/AIDS in the U.S. since the epidemic began. And among African American women, AIDS is the leading cause of death for those aged 24-35.

These statistics of course beg the question: why are minorities so disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS? Ethnicity, in itself, is not a risk factor for HIV/AIDS; however, the social, economic, educational and political disenfranchisement experienced by many African Americans nationwide have helped fuel HIV infections in minority communities. To mitigate the epidemic's impact, NMAC leverages the community-based response through a variety of public policy education programs; national conferences; treatment and research programs and trainings; electronic and printed resource materials; and a website: www.nmac.org. NMAC represents a coalition of 3,000 F/CBOs and AIDS service organizations (ASOs) delivering HIV/AIDS services in communities of color nationwide.

NMAC's advocacy efforts are funded through private funders and donors only.

[edit] NMAC Conferences

NMAC is best known for its conferences, which include the following:

United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) [[3]] This year's United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) will take place September 18-21, 2008, at the Fontainebleau Hotel and Resort, in Miami Beach, FL. For more information, or to register online, visit USCA's website, www.2008usca.org, call: (202) 483-6622 or write: conferences@nmac.org.

This is the largest AIDS-related gathering in the United States. Over 3,000 workers representing all fronts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic—from case managers and physicians, to public health workers and advocates, PLWHAs to policymakers—come together to build national support networks, exchange the latest information and learn cutting-edge tools to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS. We hope you will be one of them.

Upcoming Deadlines for the 2008 USCA

• USCA Scholarships: June 6, 2008
• Early Participant Registration: June 13, 2008
• Early Exhibitor/Advertising Registration: June 13, 2008
• Hotel Reservations: August 23, 2008 (call the Fontainebleau directly at 1-800-548-8886; mention USCA)

HIV Prevention Leadership Summit [4] The 2008 HIV Prevention Leadership Summit (HPLS) will be held from June 11-14, 2008 in Detroit, MI at the Detroit Marriott Hotel at Renaissance Center. For more information, or to register online, visit the HPLS website at www.2008hpls.org, call: (202) 483-6622 or write: conferences@nmac.org.

HPLS brings together staff from community-based organizations, community co-chairs, community planning leaders and health departments to network and learn from each other about HIV prevention efforts including community planning, effective interventions, capacity building and program integration from around the country. This year’s Summit will again include institutes, workshops, roundtables and other sessions geared to planning groups, health departments and community-based organizations providing HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) capacity building assistance providers, and other federal and national partner agencies involved in HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention.

The goal of the meeting is to bring together leaders in HIV/viral hepatitis/STD/TB prevention – both veteran leaders and new leaders – to disseminate and exchange information and lessons learned, and network to enhance program planning and management. The conference agenda will be developed through an abstract process. This process will help ensure the participation of prevention staff from across the nation. And as a meeting for leaders with all levels of experience, the conference provides opportunities for participants to showcase their jurisdiction or agency’s prevention successes, as well as chances to learn new ideas, meet and network with colleagues from around the country, and build connections that can be brought back to your programs at home.

During the 2008 HPLS, the CDC will be convening a series of sessions that will be directly related to CDC HIV prevention program priorities. These sessions will be relevant to health departments and community-based organizations activities. Therefore, a portion of the 2008 HPLS program agenda will not be abstract driven.

The 2008 HPLS will be organized in five tracks: Effective Interventions (with three focus areas: Effective Behavioral Interventions, HIV Counseling and Testing and Beyond Individual Behavior Change: Different Strategies for HIV Prevention); Using Data for DecisionMaking; Community Planning and HIV Prevention Leadership; Integration, Program Collaboration and Service Integration; and Strengthening Public Health Leadership and Organizational Capacity.

[edit] History of the National Minority AIDS Council

Leaders of prominent minority AIDS organization nationwide – including Paul Kawata, Gil Gerard, Calu Lester, Don Edwards, Timm Offutt, Norm Nickens, Craig Harris, Carl Bean, Suki Ports, Marie St.-Cyr and Sandra McDonald – started the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) in response to the American Public Health Association (APHA) decision to not invite anyone of color to participate on the panel of its first ever AIDS workshop, at its 1986 association meeting. Harris, an African-American gay man living with AIDS, announced the formation of NMAC during that panel discussion after he rushed the stage, shouting "I WILL BE HEARD" and taking the microphone away from Dr. Merv Silverman, then the San Francisco Health Commissioner.

NMAC then set about to building awareness around the impact of HIV in communities of color. Its first order of business was meeting with US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop while he was writing his historic report about AIDS. Originally scheduled for just 15 minutes, Koop, who had not known about the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS among minorities, sat riveted by NMAC's representatives for nearly two and half hours. The report would become the only publication, other than tax and census forms, to be mailed to every person in the United States. The agency incorporated in 1987, and soon launched its groundbreaking social marketing campaign, "Live Long Sugar," with Patti LaBelle, which alerted people of color living with HIV/AIDS about the dangers of the common HIV co-infection, Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia (PNP).

In 1989, NMAC partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) to help build the capacity of small faith- and community-based organizations (F/CBOs) delivering HIV/AIDS services in communities of color. This changed the mission of the agency from raising awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS among minorities, to building leadership within communities to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.

Today, NMAC accomplishes this mission through a variety of public policy education programs; national conferences; treatment and research programs and trainings; electronic and printed resource materials; and a website: www.nmac.org. NMAC represents a coalition of 3,000 F/CBOs and AIDS service organizations (ASOs) delivering HIV/AIDS services in communities of color nationwide. NMAC's advocacy efforts are funded through private funders and donors only.

[edit] NMAC Facilities and Staff

NMAC operates two offices in Washington, DC’s historic U Street corridor. Today, it has 32 full-time staff, and represents over 3,000 community- and faith based organizations nationwide.