| Washington AIDS Partnership |
What is the Washington AIDS Partnership?
The Washington AIDS
Partnership, an initiative of the Washington Regional Association of
Grantmakers, is the largest private funder of HIV/AIDS prevention, education and
advocacy
services in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, awarding over $1 million
annually. With a staff of two and a twenty-two member advisory committee of
funders, experts, and individuals living with HIV/AIDS to guide our work, the
Partnership invests resources in local organizations to improve HIV/AIDS
prevention, testing, and care services in the Washington, D.C. region.
Activities include providing technical assistance to local organizations;
facilitating local public policy initiatives to improve the HIV/AIDS system of
prevention, testing, and care; and recruiting and mentoring a team of young people who
commit to a year of full-time volunteer service at local HIV/AIDS agencies as
AmeriCorps members.
In 1987, a Ford Foundation
study determined that the most effective private-sector response to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic would come from the local level. This led to the creation of the
National AIDS Fund (formally called National Community AIDS Partnership) to
encourage local philanthropy to become involved in HIV/AIDS grantmaking by
channeling matching dollars from national funders through local partnerships.
Because the Washington metropolitan area was deeply affected by the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, the Ford Foundation invited D.C.’s community to become one of
National AIDS Fund's eight original sites.
In 1988, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and 20 local funders joined in support of the Partnership as it began funding a wide range of HIV/AIDS prevention and care services. After five years of nurturing at the Meyer Foundation, the Partnership became a project of Washington Grantmakers in 1993. Since 1989, the Partnership has granted over $19 million, including more than $2 million dollars raised from national sources to match local contributions. Over 150 organizations have benefited from grants awarded by the Partnership. Currently, over 30 major funders participate in the Partnership in addition to many small funders and individuals. The Partnership operates under the direction of Executive Director, Channing Wickham and Program Manager, Jennifer Jue.
Click
here to
download our latest report in PDF format. (Note: You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader Version 4.0 to view and print this document. To download Adobe
Acrobat Reader, click
here.)
Why is there a need for HIV/AIDS awareness and
funding in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region?
The District of Columbia
ranks first in the country in terms of AIDS cases per capita.
HIV/AIDS is
one of the most urgent health problems facing the United States and the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. As of
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19,864 AIDS cases have been reported in the District
of Columbia and over 36,000 AIDS cases in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan
area.1
Northern Virginia accounts
for 28.9% of living HIV/AIDS cases in Virginia2
and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties have 28.7% of living cases in
Maryland.3
Communities of color and women
are increasingly at risk for HIV/AIDS, especially in the District which has been
disproportionately impacted by the epidemic. African Americans
accounted for 75.6% of HIV/AIDS cases while only accounting for 52.2% of the
D.C. population.4
Another affected population is youth.
D.C.'s Department of Health estimates that 1 in every 100 D.C. youth has
HIV/AIDS, and of those D.C. students who completed the 2007 Youth Risk Factor
Behavioral Survey, more than 40% were sexually active.8
________________________
1
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
HIV Surveillance Report. 2008; 20: 117, 142.
2
Virginia HIV/AIDS Surveillance Quarterly Report. Third Quarter 2009: Table 2.
3 Maryland
HIV/AIDS Epidemiological Profile. December 2008.
4 District of Columbia HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Epidemiology Annual Report
2009 Update: 16.
5
District of Columbia
6
District of Columbia
7
District of Columbia
8 District of Columbia
9