September 21, 2023

September Action Report

As we prepare for a busy fall, we're excited to highlight great work from our members, provide more opportunities for action, and share another in-depth profile of one of our HIV Leadership Advisory Council leaders.

Action from Members

Uber was profiled on National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (Sept 18)
by CBS News in San Francisco, highlighting the great work they are doing in SF (and around the country) connecting individuals with care.
Gilead Sciences and CVS partnered with the National AIDS Memorial, Southern AIDS Coalition and others to bring the AIDS Memorial Quilt to historically black colleges and universities to honor Black and Brown lives lost to AIDS and engage students in panel-making workshops. The initiative was part of Change the Pattern, an effort to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and its continued impact on communities of color and marginalized populations across the South.
The team at Paramount Pictures has been busy preparing for the 2023 AIDS Walk LA which will be held on October 15 in West Hollywood Park. Paramount has been an official Grand Sponsor of the event since the first walk was held in 1985. In addition to being a sponsor, Paramount recruits employees to walk in the annual event (they’ve had crews of hundreds in some years), and also works to raise awareness, enthusiasm and funds before the walk, and provides in-kind, physical and logistical support at the event itself. Since the first walk, more than $92 million has been raised to support APLA Health, who provides programs and services that benefit more than 16,000 individuals living in Los Angeles County. Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare are also premier sponsors of AIDS Walk LA this year.

Action from the Coalition

The coalition was thrilled to co-host a breakfast with coalition member Avalere during the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS in DC. Fellow coalition members, HIV Leadership Advisory Council members, and friends were able to gather, make connections, and discuss the important work being done.

Opportunities for Action

Join New Atlanta Business Action to End HIV - On Thursday, October 26, we will launch our first local coalition that will bring together business leaders, city officials, public health advisors, community allies, and strategic partners to align on the opportunities for private sector engagement in ending HIV in Metro Atlanta. Fellow coalition members Ada Health, Avita Care Solutions, Gilead Sciences, Healthvana, Mercer, Mistr, Molecular Testing Labs, Uber, ViiV Healthcare, and Walmart have confirmed their participation. If your business has a presence in Atlanta and you’d like to join the effort, please let us know!
‍Support Continued Federal HIV Funding - The House has proposed significant spending cuts to domestic HIV programs, which would eliminate initiatives that reach the most impacted populations, roll back the progress made to date, and stymie efforts to end HIV.
What your company can do:
- ‍Explore opportunities to connect and build allyship in the U.S. House and Senate, letting them know that ending HIV in the U.S. is something your company is committed to.
- Engage in outreach and education with representatives who may not understand the implications of HIV/AIDS funding cuts in their home communities.
- Consider co-authoring an op-ed with other coalition members to add the power of your voices in this conversation.
- If you’re interested in doing more, let us know!
- ‍Commemorate World AIDS Day (December 1) - World AIDS Day is an opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV, and commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. It’s not too soon to start planning what your company will do to recognize World AIDS Day this year. Here are a few suggestions to jumpstart your planning:
- Let employees know your company cares about HIV/AIDS. Consider scheduling internal messaging leading up to December 1 through team newsletters, internal communications channels, or hang flyers sharing your company’s commitment. You can adapt our sample CEO letter for your specific workplace.
- Identify a local public health official or HIV/AIDS service organization who can participate as a guest speaker for a team or Employee Resource Group “lunch and learn” session to help provide culturally responsive information about HIV to your members.
- Plan a team or ERG off-site to volunteer at a local organization, paint a mural that honors those lost to AIDS, or get tested for HIV as a group. Making it a group activity can foster support and create community around the experience.

HIV in the News

Action Spotlight

This month we are pleased to introduce you to another member of our HIV Leadership Advisory Council:

Jen Laws
‍President and CEO,
Community Access Action Network

Jen Laws is a transgender man, living with HIV, located just outside of New Orleans in Slidell, Louisiana. With a decade of patient advocacy, public health policy analysis, and healthcare policy consulting under his belt, he now leads Community Access National Network (CANN) as the organization's CEO. For 27 years, CANN has worked to define the issues around HIV, Hepatitis C, and Substance Disorder from the patient perspective while advocating across stakeholder groups. Jen began this work in South Florida and relocated in 2019 to be with his partner and her amazing daughters. Centering home and family while advocating for broad access to care and healthier families across the country, he likes to tell those who will listen that his life is "exceptionally charmed."

How do you hope to see U.S. Business Action to End HIV and coalition members contributing toward ending HIV in the U.S.?

As we developed effective medications and community-focused public programming in the United States, we've also neglected to meaningfully pull in private partners beyond our community's philanthropic needs. Now, don't get me wrong, good things have been done and continue to need to be done with those philanthropic dollars and we've also got the opportunity here, after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, to lean into the business industry's expertise in marketing and messaging, care delivery systems, and - at a base level - employee benefit design. There's a whole realm of possibilities we're just scratching the surface of in terms of addressing the community behind "public" health. Really sharing taking part in the "community" of "public health" means recognizing when communities thrive, business thrives as well. Doing the Right Thing by treating people and their families well means fewer illnesses, fewer disparities, more productivity, healthier, longer, happier lives. And I think we reach that space not just by seeing companies tout their values, but live them. And so my hope with U.S. Business Action to End HIV and our coalition members is really quite simple in that I hope we discover how we can "super charge" addressing public health needs, especially HIV, achieving our healthcare goals, by working collaboratively with private industry.

Why have you personally decided to dedicate yourself to working on HIV?

I mean there's some obvious answers here, right? I'm a trans man living with HIV in the South - there's some skin in the game for me, be it my own sense of health or my direct connection with LGBTQ and Southern communities being disproportionately impacted by HIV. But more over, the founder of CANN, the late Bill Arnold, told me once, "If you solve HIV, you solve all health inequities." And that voice follows me daily - with some serious urgency. The things that drive HIV are the same things that drive all other health disparities. If we solve them for one, we can duplicate that process for every issue. And HIV has the upper hand in the sense that the United States decided to care about this issue in a public health program kinda way. We have some unique tools in that respect. So building on that success means, ultimately - when we reach these goals - we can make things a bit more fair, a bit more just, a little bit easier for our neighbors and family members.

In HIV advocacy, we say "I love you" to each other a whole awful lot. That means feeling a little less alone in the world and a little less scared when things are hard, even if we can't immediately change the circumstances we face. My faith is deeply important to me - I came by it hard, in a world that made and sometimes still does make it hard to feel like God loves you. But what drives me most is knowing that "love" is a verb, it requires action. I see it everyday in this space. And my faith tells me that love requires action. So this is me doing my best at what I know I'm good at to say "I love you". Cuz I think we need more of that.

Save The Date

HAA Mental Health Equity at Work Summit (Virtual)
October 5 - Register
HLTH Conference (Las Vegas)
October 8-11 - Let us know if you will be there!
Atlanta Business Action to End HIV Inaugural Summit (Atlanta)
October 26, 2-4pm ET
Industry Action Cohort: Employee Resource Groups (Virtual)
November 1, Time TBC
Quarterly Coalition Convening (Virtual)
November 15, 2pm ET
Industry Action Cohort: HR & Benefits Managers (Virtual)
November 16, Time TBC
End of Year Coalition Event (DC)
November 30 - Mark your calendars for an in-person event in Washington D.C. celebrating the first year of coalition impact and looking ahead to year two! Time TBC.

Thank you for your commitment and leadership. Let's keep up the momentum!