This is the first of an occasional series that focuses on the Minority Intervention Network for Chicago Communities of Color ( MINC-3 ) .
Although many are familiar with HIV/AIDS organizations that work on the North Side of Chicago, relatively few know about the agencies that help South and West Side residents—primarily minorities—who live with the disease.
One organization that is reaching out is the TaskForce Prevention and Community Services. TaskForce is just one of the agencies that makes up the Minority Intervention Network for Chicago Communities of Color ( MINC-3 ) ; the other organizations are Prologue, Working for Togetherness, the South Side Help Center, Carepoint and Project VIDA.
'MINC-3 was born out of a response to the funding crisis that everyone is experiencing,' said TaskForce Executive Director Alicia Ozier, who added that other organizations are certainly welcome to join. 'Because of this crisis, we realized that the street level of service is being jeopardized. We want to be able to deliver services to high-risk areas as they occur.
'For example, one high-risk population is women who exchange sex for drugs or money. So, through our outreach, we're able to impact those population right in those areas. We can be out at three o'clock in the morning along a strip that supports the sex trade [ something that Prologue does ] . We provide ground-zero service in a very non-judgmental way.'
'We know that there are agencies like TaskForce, that operate in different [ ways ] ,' Ozier said. 'In some ways, we duplicate services and in some ways we are lacking in addressing all of the gaps. By coming together, we've painted a picture that community-based agencies of color are coming together. However, we have also made a very strong appeal to the Chicago Department of Public Health that we will come together to [ face ] the challenges of funding. By coming together, we're augmenting funding across a number of agencies but we're also working within the African-American and Latino communities to really focus on services.'
Ozier added that cross-referencing can also occur, with an individual sometimes being sent to another organization within MINC-3 that can help that person better. She also said that the coalition is working with consultants and politicians, such as Alderman Ed Smith and State Rep. Connie Howard, to make the group more appealing to funders.
TaskForce was founded in 1990 with the primary goal of providing preventive services to youth and adult men of color who are at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The agency has provided people and their families with sensitive and confidential HIV/AIDS prevention education and support.
TaskForce also provides a safe space for young adults aged 13-24, and even has an empowerment center that is open weekdays, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. In addition, the center encourages visitors to utilize its health care resources, counseling services and computer access. Also, TaskForce offers the painless OraSure HIV test kit at 10 a.m.-3 p.m. during the week.
The organization has also put together an outreach/street team that seeks to educate residents in various settings, including barbershops and nightspots. 'TaskForce actually goes out to nightclubs throughout Chicago,' Ozier said. 'The outreach team [ consists of ] young African-American MSMs who pass out preventative materials. We're out seven nights a week, doing outreach to [ gay ] and lesbian nightclubs as well as youth events, so we'll go out to the ball communities, for example.'
Ozier said that the outreach is met with little resistance. 'We're actually challenged with increasing our presence,' she said. 'They want us there longer. We're there about four hours a night—but [ some people ] want us there from the time they open to the time they close.'
Ultimately, Ozier would like to see a structure with corporate centers that addresses everything from program development to medical care. 'We need to address the core of this pandemic,' she said.
TaskForce Prevention and Community Services is located at 9 N. Cicero. For more info, call 773-473-4100 or see www.cityforce.org .
