This post is part of a monthly series. It provides an overview of themes and topics from the general meetings and committee meetings of the Ryan White Planning Council and HIV Prevention Planning Group. To view meeting materials and presentations, please visit www.hivphilly.org or check out our SlideShare account.

Ryan White Planning Council (RWPC)

First off, the RWPC's Needs Assessment Committee has new leadership!  Tre Alexander is a first-time co-chair for the committee, and Gerry Keys has returned as a co-chair once again.  During their meeting, the group continued its previous discussions on the current processes used to link newly-diagnosed people living with HIV/AIDS to medical care.  They developed a list of questions for AACO on these processes. 

Meanwhile, the Positive Committee opened nominations for one of its co-chair positions in September.  An election will take place at the October meeting, which will be held on Monday, October 7.  (Both October and November's Positive Committee meetings have been moved to the first Mondays in those months, due to city holidays.)  They also continued talking about their World AIDS Day project recognizing the efforts of local heroes.

The Ryan White Planning Council also opened nominations for one of its co-chair seats this month.  Rich Lampkins' current term as co-chair is coming to an end, and we'll be taking nominations for his position until the October RWPC meeting.  Any nominee has to be a current RWPC member who has been in good standing for at least a year.  The nominee also has to accept the nomination.  You can email me at briana@hivphilly.org if you'd like to throw someone's hat in the ring.  They also approved a 10% increase budget to include with the grant application to the federal government.  We don't expect to actually receive a 10% increase, but it doesn't hurt to ask.  Plus, I gave a short presentation on Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act.

Thanks to the efforts of the RWPC Nominations Committee, the Ryan White Planning Council will welcome several new members in October.  They approved sixteen applications in total, eleven of which were current members that were reapplying for membership.  The new members will go through orientation on October 10, and we're looking forward to having them!

HIV Prevention Planning Group (HPG)

The new HIV Prevention Planning Group (HPG) is still getting their feet wet with community planning until they have their locally-adapted HIV Planning Boot Camp that will be provided by the National Minority AIDS Council next month.  Their September meeting started off with a basic presentation on us, the Office of HIV Planning.  They also watched a CDC Grand Rounds webcast on high-impact prevention, which is part of a series of webcasts the CDC has been doing on public health.  This provided the new HPG members with necessary background information that will help them in months to come.

Points of Integration Workgroup

The Points of Integration Workgroup kept on with its discussion of linkage to care tools for Philadelphia.  They talked about current risk assessments used by HIV testers, and how they might include questions to assess a newly-diagnosed client's readiness to enter HIV care into the whole testing process.  They also had a discussion on partner services, including their place in linkage to care.  They'll finalize the readiness for care tool and determine their next steps during their October meeting.

It's always a great time to get involved in community planning for the Philadelphia area. To learn more, follow the links in this post, attend one of the meetings listed on our calendar, or email info@hivphilly.org to find out how to get involved. If you have questions, you can also call us at 215-574-6760.