Friends and Colleagues –
Thank you so much for joining our work as partners, collaborators, financial supporters, students, mentors, and people making your corner of the world healthier and more equitable. We cannot strengthen public health and advance health justice without your involvement and support.
These last few weeks have been considerably stressful as the nation and the world experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases, driven largely by the highly transmissible Delta variant. The spike in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is a grim reminder of the increasingly long-term impact of the pandemic. What has been made clear is that the current surge is the result of vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation and fear. PHIMC continues to adapt to the changing COVID realities and takes hope from new developments, including the recommendations for third shots for immunocompromised people, booster shots for fully immunized people, and the first full approval of a COVID vaccine. These are milestones, driven by science, that bring us ever closer to ending the pandemic.
PHIMC is proud to announce that all current and new staff will be required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. This is an essential step to protecting not only our own health but the health of our clients and partners as well. It will also give us confidence as we return to working in our office, hopefully in October.
Again, thank you for being part of the PHIMC family. We are excited to share our work with you and hope you are inspired by the impact our programs have in Illinois.
Sincerely,
Karen A. Reitan
President and Chief Executive Officer
PHIMC is closely monitoring guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, State of Illinois, and City of Chicago as we consider in-person gatherings, even among staff. For now, masks are required indoors at all times during PHIMC activities. If you have not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine, we highly recommend you do so to help protect our communities. More information on where to get a vaccine in Illinois is here.
PHIMC Launches Statewide Routine HIV Screening and Affirming Care Initiative: Join Us.
PHIMC invites healthcare clinics across Illinois to participate in a new grant-funded initiative that supports routine HIV screening implementation. This initiative offers an exciting opportunity to be part of a provider cohort creating a pathway for a sustainable and resilient HIV response as a standard of care. Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has awarded PHIMC a grant to support routine HIV screening implementation in ten sites serving high-incidence areas across Illinois. Click here for a map of targeted areas in the state. If you are interested but do not work in one of the targeted areas, please reach out to Katie Morin at katie.morin@phimc.org.
Through PHIMC’s new initiative, participating healthcare organizations will receive funding and capacity-building assistance to implement a routine HIV screening and affirming care program and guidance on providing linkages to medical care and other post-diagnostic services for people diagnosed as HIV positive. This initiative trains and empowers clinic staff to build a culture that supports and affirms BIPOC-LGBTQ+ identities. Affirming care, one of the pillars of PHIMC’s work, is vital to the success of routine HIV screening as it decreases experiences with discrimination and stigma and helps to increase the number of people who access and remain in care.
Additional support to healthcare sites participating in this initiative includes customized implementation plans and technical assistance, access to evidence-based training modules and expert facilitators, online resources, and an online peer forum for staff to share their experiences as they implement the program.
By the end of 2019, an estimated 1.2 million people aged 13 years and older in the United States were living with HIV, including about one in eight individuals who had not been diagnosed as HIV positive. (Source: CDC).
Today 50% of estimated people living with HIV are in treatment for HIV. Medical treatment helps people with HIV achieve viral load suppression, which protects their health and the health of others by preventing HIV progression and reducing HIV transmission. Even as HIV transmission rates have declined in the US over the last few decades, today nearly 40% of new HIV infections are transmitted by people who don’t know they have the virus. The best way to combat this is routine HIV screening.
Routine HIV screening reduces barriers to HIV testing by making it part of routine healthcare for everyone ages 13 to 64, regardless of any known risk factors or symptoms. Routine HIV screening is a critical step in diagnosing people with HIV and getting them into treatment so they can live longer, healthier lives while preventing HIV transmission.
If your agency is interested in participating or learning more, please contact Katie Morin at katie.morin@phimc.org.
Building a Public Health Workforce, One Scholar at a Time
As the administrator of Northeast Illinois Area Health Education Center (AHEC), PHIMC was proud to co-host a Summer Institute for current and prospective Illinois AHEC Scholars on August 14-15, 2021, in collaboration with Health & Medicine Policy Research Group and Project Brotherhood.
Over the course of two days, participants in the AHEC Summer Institute earned certifications in topics such as Blood Borne Pathogens and Mental Health First Aid, received career coaching and training, networked with one another, and learned from leading health professionals in various industries.
“I was amazed to see the spectrum of doctors that came out to give us insight into their professional views on their professional lives. I was also super interested in all the symposiums that were provided, especially the one regarding the use of drugs and Naloxone.” ~ Patrick
The National AHEC Organization was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train, and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations. Today, we and our AHEC peers across the country are preparing the next generation of public health professionals to better serve low-income communities, rural communities, communities of color, and people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender-nonbinary. This includes encouraging young people from underserved communities to consider careers in the health professions.
For more information on Northeast Illinois AHEC and how to get involved as a Scholar, Mentor, or Trainer, please contact Ruthie Moore at ruthie.moore@phimc.org.
PHIMC Launches School Health Data Transformation Pilot Project
PHIMC is excited to design and build a data network that increases data utilization across sectors to improve health and education outcomes for Chicago young people. There are many quality school health providers serving Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students, but limited data infrastructure prohibits effective cross-sector data sharing and utilization. As a result, many CPS students do not have access to comprehensive physical and mental health services and it’s not clear which students need services the most. COVID-19 and its impact on schools heightens the need for cross-sector collaboration in order to strengthen the school health system and better support communities and families. The School Health Data Transformation Pilot Project is partnering with a cohort of Chicago mental and behavioral health providers to design and build the data network.
The Data Transformation Project vision was developed and informed through the School Health Access Collaborative (SHAC), a multi-sector coalition that aims to improve the school health system in order to provide access to comprehensive, sustainable, and quality healthcare for Chicago students. SHAC is co-convened by Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago (PHIMC) and Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC).
PHIMC and HSC have partnered with Asemio, a social impact technology firm, to co-design the school health data network. Asemio brings critical expertise in safe, innovative, cross-sector data sharing and has experience working with a range of sectors including public health, education, social services, housing, and more.
Funding for the School Health Data Transformation Pilot Project is from Polk Bros. Foundation, a Chicago-based private foundation, which has supported SHAC and several school and community health initiatives over its 50+ year history.
To learn more or to get involved, please contact PHIMC Program Manager, Meghana Menon, at meghana.menon@phimc.org.
Action Camp 2021: A Collaborative Hybrid Model
It truly feels like the end of summer is here, now that Action Camp 2021 (AC21) has come and gone. We could not be more pleased with this year’s hybrid model that allowed campers to connect and learn virtually from the safety of their homes while also finding opportunities to share outdoor space and activity time with regional friends, new and old. Perpetual shout outs to the fierce AC21 Youth Leaders from the Alliance Youth Committee and Youth Services’ prideLEAD programs. Thank you all for the hard work over this summer and the brilliance you shared with us all at camp!
Thank you also to our amazing community partners, without whom we could not offer so much in-person joy to our campers and Youth Leaders! Community partners across the state provided outdoor space, supervision, and support in the form of virtual bunk counselors, giving rising 8th-12th grade LGBTQ+ young people a space to show up as their full, authentic selves and connect with peers. We are so grateful to welcome 360 Youth Services in Naperville, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Uniting Pride of Champaign County, and Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) in Evanston into the Action Camp family, and greatly appreciate Youth Services Pride Youth Program for being the best camp planning partners we could hope for!
For information on future youth leadership opportunities, please visit www.ilsafeschools.org/annual-events or reach out to nat.duran@phimc.org.
Illinois Safe Schools Consortia
PHIMC’s Illinois Safe Schools Alliance program is building a northern Illinois pilot of the Safe Schools Consortia, which is a new cohort-based learning and practice program for high-level school decision-makers to become regional champions for professional development and training, affirming policies, advocacy guidance, and youth leadership and organizing. Our vision for the Safe Schools Consortia is to create a network of Safe Schools Champions within Regional Offices of Education (ROEs) who can lead their respective counties and districts to safer, inclusive, and more affirming learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth in their school and home communities.
Over the next year, our team of AmeriCorps VISTAs will create comprehensive toolkits to support future Safe Schools Champions, connect with service providers and community partners across northern Illinois, explore creative funding opportunities for collaborative proposals, and strengthen the regional network of Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs).
If you are or you know folks in leadership positions within school systems who are interested in or can benefit from participating in this program, please direct them to nat.duran@phimc.org.
New VISTAs
We are thrilled to welcome a new cohort of AmeriCorps VISTAs to the Illinois Safe Schools Consortia project!
William Collier (he/him) is joining us for a second year as the Youth Leadership and Organizing VISTA, supporting the Alliance’s GSA and Youth Committee work and focusing on data collection and analysis of LGBTQ+ youth living in poverty across Northern Illinois.
Kevin Cucolo (he/him) will be serving as our Professional Development and Training VISTA, supporting the continued development of intake and evaluation processes for the Alliance and Area Health Education Center (AHEC) programs and leading our Consortia toolkit design and training structure work.
Benjamin Love (he/him) will be serving as our Policy and Advocacy VISTA, supporting the rollout of Inclusive Curriculum Law guidance and tools, developing a Know Your Rights Street Team in collaboration with the Alliance Youth Committee, and creating best practice guidelines for the Alliance’s policy and advocacy initiatives.
Nicole Mincu (she/her) will be serving as our Development and Outreach VISTA, supporting the continued growth of PHIMC’s fundraising portfolio, recruiting community partners and participants for the Consortia project, and exploring creative collaborative funding streams for school districts and Regional Offices of Education (ROEs) to apply to safer schools work in their respective jurisdictions.
Students, Schools, and Districts: How We Can Help You Make Schools Safer for LGBTQ+ Youth
At local, state, and national levels, policies are a primary vehicle for schools, districts, and school systems to communicate their values regarding how all school stakeholders should be treated — including students, families, personnel, and communities. As a PHIMC statewide program, Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (the Alliance) partners with schools and school systems to ensure all policies communicate the value of inclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
This work encompasses policies and procedures related to non-discrimination, equal employment, equal educational opportunity, working with transgender and gender-expansive students, bullying prevention, school discipline, and beyond. The Alliance works with schools and school systems to ensure effective policy language, procedures for communicating policies to the entire school community with information on how to make complaints and/or enforce such policies, and systems to regularly review the efficacy of new and/or revised policies.
Specifically, the Alliance provides the following:
For Schools, Districts, and Youth Service Providers: Policy Consultation Services
The Alliance offers consulting services for schools, school districts, associations, and non-profit organizations regarding violence prevention, creating inclusive curriculum, policy development, etc. Please contact us about pricing. We offer a sliding scale to schools and districts for all services where the cost would be prohibitive.
For LGBTQ+ Students, Educators, and Support Staff: Individualized Advocacy Support
The Alliance provides individualized advocacy support for LGBTQ+ students who are facing discrimination and harassment or other barriers to learning and for LGBTQ+ educators and support staff experiencing discrimination. If schools are unable to meet their needs, referrals and extensive resources are provided. Individualized advocacy support is free to educators, staff, students, and their families or guardians. If support is needed, our advocacy request form can be found here.
For Students: Know Your Rights Programming
The Alliance created a five-part English-Spanish bilingual Know Your Rights project dedicated to teaching young people their rights in school. This project educates all students on their rights in specific subject areas, with a focus on LGBTQ+ students’ rights.
Organizations, groups, and schools can request a workshop facilitated by an Alliance staff person or request to have materials shipped to them. Each subject area has a comic that explains students’ rights to them, along with a step-by-step curriculum for workshop facilitation.
More information on each workshop topic can be found here.
Visit the Alliance website or contact Grecia Magdaleno (they/them), Policy and Advocacy Manager, at grecia.magdaleno@phimc.org for more information.
AmeriCorps:
National Health Corps (NHC) Chicago and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Allies Programs Seek Host Sites & Members
PHIMC’s two AmeriCorps programs, National Health Corps Chicago (NHC Chicago) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Allies, seek host sites and members for the upcoming program year. NHC Chicago and SUD Allies members commit to up to a year of direct service in a community setting. Members serve at local community organizations, known as host sites, to improve health in Chicago’s underserved communities. Throughout their service term, members plan and participate in group service projects and national service days in collaboration with other volunteer organizations. AmeriCorps is committed to fostering members’ personal and professional development and commitment to service through trainings and teambuilding.
Become an AmeriCorps Member
Member applications are open for candidates interested in the 2021-2022 NHC Chicago or SUD Allies service term! To learn more about becoming a member and to view current available position descriptions, please visit our AmeriCorps Opportunities page.
Become an AmeriCorps Host Site
We seek organizations interested in hosting an AmeriCorps member for up to one year of service, to expand service and education capacity around:
Supporting substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery- Reducing prescription drug and opioid use
- Responding to COVID-19
- Increasing physical activity and nutrition
- Increasing older adult health
Host site slots are still open for the 2021-2022 program year. Read our Request for Applications, Host Site Applications, and Position Description templates for NHC Chicago and SUD Allies here.
Illinois Reentry Conference
On March 4, 2021, PHIMC held Illinois Reentry Conference: Advancing Criminal, Health, and Social Justice Admist Two Pandemics. Due to COVID-19, the conference was held virtually in partnership with AV Chicago. One-hundred and fifty-seven people participated, including 19 presenters from across the United States, coming together to address the relationship between mass incarceration, HIV, public health, and social justice.
The first 100 registrants received a special conference box from Packed with Purpose that included products from businesses that support formerly incarcerated individuals.
Plenary sessions addressed COVID-19, justice, vaccines, and programs and collaborations for successful reentry — featuring Dr. Rob Fullilove, Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences, and co-director of the Cities Research Group at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; Dr. Stephen Schrantz, Medicine/Pediatric Physician and Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Chicago Medicine; Jennifer Parrack, Re-entry Administrator, Illinois Department of Corrections; and Alyssa Williams, Chief of Programs and Support Services, Illinois Department of Corrections — and closed with ‘When they see me’: An Artistic Examination of the American Prison Industrial Complex by Performance Artist Grim Jackson.
Breakout sessions offered subject-specific tracks for attendees to further rethink, reimagine, and rediscover criminal, health, and social justice. Thank you to our tremendous presenters and participants for sharing stories, research, insights, laughter, and dialogue throughout the day!
If you missed the conference, you can still view plenary sessions at bit.ly/ReentryVid
Recommendations on the Role and Future Directions of Community Health Workers in the Public Health Workforce
The National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training (NCCPHT) recently released Recommendations on the Role and Future Directions of Community Health Workers in the Public Health Workforce, a report that highlights our current opportunity to rethink and retool our public health workforce for the future.The COVID-19 pandemic — and the subsequent calls for addressing racism and health equity in the response and recovery — has clearly demonstrated the need to invest more heavily in community health workers to respond to public health emergencies and improve population health.
This publication is an essential resource for organizing, mobilizing, and sustaining advocacy efforts by and for community health workers to both articulate their unique value and make a clear case for investment in these workers as essential members of the public health workforce.
We are happy to note that Caitlin Stack, PHIMC’s Program Director – Workforce Development, contributed to this report, which emerged from work led by National Network of Public Health Institutes’ Workforce Development Workgroup.
Staff in the Spotlight
Pride rings true in National Service features William Collier, PHIMC Youth Leadership and Organizing VISTA, published by AmeriCorps on June 29, 2021
CPS High School Dean Under Investigation For Homophobic Jokes On Facebook
CBS Chicago Reporter Tim McNicholas interviews Grecia Magdaleno, PHIMC Policy and Advocacy Manager for Illinois Safe Schools Alliance – aired June 14, 2021
Using Data and Community Engagement Collaborations to Guide an Equitable COVID-19 Recovery discusses PHIMC’s collaborative work with Elevated Chicago and multiple community-led organizations to improve walkability in communities of color and invest in the built environment as part of a just recovery, published by Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University on June 11, 2021
Sports Weekly Conversation with Nat Duran on LGBTQ+ Identities, aired May 27, 2021 on Comcast. If you do not subscribe to Comcast, you can watch Sports Weekly Host Camron Smith speak with Nat Duran, PHIMC’s Youth Engagement Manager for Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, in the show’s teaser here.
Could queer-inclusive sex ed halt trans homicides? Some advocates say yes.
Kate Sosin, Reporter for The 19th, interviews Grecia Magdaleno, PHIMC Policy and Advocacy Manager for Illinois Safe Schools Alliance published May 13, 2021
AIDS Run & Walk Chicago
AIDS Foundation Chicago’s (AFC) annual Run & Walk Chicago will take place on Sunday, October 2 at Soldier Field. The AIDS Run & Walk is an opportunity for PHIMC to raise funds for our vital programs while also helping AFC decrease stigma, raise awareness about the epidemic, and support services for people living with HIV and AIDS. We are proud to be one of AFC’s CommunityDirect partners, meaning that over 90% of the money we raise goes directly to PHIMC.
Many PHIMC staff and supporters have already begun their fundraising efforts for this year’s exciting event, and we would love for you to be a part of the action! Join team PHIMC by walking, running, or strolling along with us on Sunday, October 2 at Soldier Field, or by donating to Team PHIMC. This year, we are striving to raise $10,000 for this important event. We truly appreciate any gift of time or treasure you can offer to support PHIMC’s work for health equity and access to care for marginalized populations.
Click here to learn more about Team PHIMC, join our team, or support our work with a donation.
Invigorate: A B.Y.O. Brunch for Public Health
SAVE THE DATE!
Sunday, November 7, 2021
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
PHIMC is thrilled to announce that Invigorate: A B.Y.O. Brunch for Public Health will take place on Sunday, November 7 from 11:00 a.m. through 12:30 p.m. Due to the continued COVID pandemic, the brunch will be held virtually. The Brunch builds on last year’s success, bringing back the public health quiz, discounts on carry-out or delivered meals from local restaurants, and special guests.
Invigorate: A B.Y.O. Brunch for Public Health supports PHIMC’s work to ensure that people have access to the care and services they need despite institutionalized oppression and inequity. For sponsorships or additional information, please contact Development Manager Joel Rittle at joel.rittle@phimc.org.
PHIMC Welcomes New Staff
Kelly Hiznay (she/her), AmeriCorps Coordinator, supports National Health Corps (NHC) Chicago and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Allies AmeriCorps programs by coordinating recruitment, training, monitoring, operations, and grant compliance, laying a foundation for AmeriCorps members to provide health education and services to our communities.
Aleksandar Kajmakoski (they/he/she), Program Coordinator – HIV Prevention, supports the planning and implementation of routine HIV screening as a standard of care in healthcare delivery systems across Illinois through the Protecting Our Patients (POP) campaign and PHIMC’s Resource and Engagement Hub.
Joel Rittle (he/him), Development Manager, secures financial resources for PHIMC programs by working with board members and volunteers to plan fundraising events, as well as soliciting contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations.
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