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  WINDY CITY TIMES

AIDS Legal Council of Chicago marks 25 years of service
Special to the online edition of Windy City Times
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2013-04-25

This article shared 2242 times since Thu Apr 25, 2013
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To commemorate 25 years of service, the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago (ALCC) will host a benefit "A Salute to ALCC" at Kirkland and Ellis LLP May 9.

ALCC supporters, past and present board members, staff, interns, and individual and corporate sponsors are expected to attend the event.

"The response from the community surrounding our 25th anniversary has been tremendous, and we look forward to a wonderful evening to commemorate the life-saving legal work that the council does each day. The HIV epidemic continues to grow and impact more and more communities. Thanks to the wonderful support from our community and corporate partners, ALCC will be here as long as we are needed," said ALCC Executive Director Ann Hilton Fisher.

According to its website, "The ALCC exists to preserve, promote and protect the legal rights of men, women and children in the metropolitan Chicago area impacted by HIV. The council provides direct legal services to people in need, educates the public about HIV-related legal issues, and advocates for social policies that ensure fair treatment for all people affected by HIV/AIDS. With a full-time legal staff of just seven dedicated legal professionals, the Council (the only organization of its kind in the Midwest) has helped over 900 clients with 1,600 cases in 2012, and is serving a larger and more diverse client base than ever."

When the ALCC was first formed there was always a crisis, Fisher explained. People were dying so the goal, according to Fisher, was to help clients live as long as they could and then die with dignity. "We were constantly flying out of the office to do people's final paperwork- wills, guardianship of their children, or other issues. We used to build dignified deaths and now we build better lives," said ALCC Case Manager Justin Hayford.

With people living longer the ALCC has had to shift its priorities, noted Hayford. Keeping clients—from teenagers to senior citizens—stabilized while also helping them navigate byzantine bureaucratic systems such as social security, medicaid, medicare, private insurance, employment issues, health insurance and managed care is ALCC's current focus, said Hayford.

The overall goals of the ALCC include staying a step ahead of client's needs, planning and implementing ideas that help clients in a quick and efficient way, operating on a grassroots level while also being on the cutting edge regarding treatment and policies, accessibility (location and employing a bilingual receptionist) and flexibility in handling each client's concerns. According to Fisher, the ALCC has achieved all of these goals throughout its 25 year history. Fisher noted that by staying a step ahead of client's needs, the ALCC has helped clients understand the drug cocktail as it has evolved, the rules regarding working while receiving social security benefits and immigration laws among other issues. With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) going into full effect next January the ALCC's goal, Fisher said, is to be ready for any issues that might arise from the new law.

Fisher explained that one of the ways the ALCC works to make sure that the client's needs are met is by lobbying elected officials on issues such as medicaid, confidentiality, HIV testing and discrimination. Currently, the ALCC's lobbying efforts are focused on making sure that Illinois opts into expanding medicaid when the new healthcare law goes into effect, according to Fisher.

The ALCC also provides free training for other non-profits and companies, said Fisher. She noted that the most accessed brochure on the ALCC website is the page about confidentiality that is written in Spanish.

Hayford noted that they also work with a number of other organizations including HIV/AIDS providers, mental health providers, drug treatment providers, and healthcare providers.

"We tell our donors that your dollar will go further here than almost anywhere," said Fisher.

The event sponsors are Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin, Winston & Strawn, McDermott Will & Emery, Jenner & Block, DLA Piper, Mayer Brown, Schiff Hardin, Marshall Gerstein & Borun, Clark Hill, Wintersteen & Dunning, Reed Smith, Sidetrack, BestGayChicago, ChicagoPride, The L Stop, and Windy City Media Group.

Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased at www.alcc25host.eventbrite.com .

A summer garden party will also be held at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St., Aug. 14, 6-9 p.m., to commemorate ALCC's 25 years of service to the community.

See www.aidslegal.com for more information.


This article shared 2242 times since Thu Apr 25, 2013
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