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Read MoreAIDS Run & Walk
The Legal Beagles are back in the AIDS Run/Walk Chicago! We’re ready to bark down the competition! Interested in helping the Beagles by walking or running? Can’t join us on race day but would still like to help? Please make a donation to help the Beagles race to the finish line, and support the nearly 2,000 clients the Legal Council will help this year! Sign up to walk or run, or make a contribution the Beagles. Thank...
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Read MoreJustin’s 25 for 25
June 1, 2016 Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues: In my first week at AIDS Legal Council, almost exactly 25 years ago, I took two calls back to back. First, a successful LaSalle Street banker told me that after his landlord found out he had HIV, the locks on his apartment were changed, his possessions thrown in the alley, his car tires slashed. Reeling from that conversation, I took a second call. A man needed a simple will to ensure his meager possessions would go to his niece, the only family member who still spoke to him after he was diagnosed with HIV. This second case seemed comparatively easy, until he handed the phone to his nurse – it turned out the man was hospitalized – who explained in hushed tones that her patient wouldn’t last the night. Within minutes I found an attorney at a big law firm who promised to “wipe the floor with that rental agency” (she did, and charged nothing, like so many attorneys over the years). Then the legal director and I jumped on the train to see our hospitalized client. He’d been a day laborer all his adult life. Now he was exhausted and emaciated – there was almost nothing left of him. We completed his will, and as we were leaving he said to me, “I think that’s the only thing in my life I ever finished.” That was a typical day in the early years of AIDS Legal Council. The mistreatment of people with HIV was rampant, pernicious, and widespread. In addition to daily indignities, people with HIV faced extremely uncertain futures. Our clients and colleagues died with numbing regularity. Today, as I’m about to celebrate 25 years as a legal advocate with the Council – July 1 is the official anniversary date – the outlook for most people with HIV is very different. Someone diagnosed with HIV can now reasonably expect a normal lifespan. This sea change is due not only to advances in medicine but, just as importantly, advances in social service advocacy. It’s taken an army of lawyers, paralegals, social workers, case managers, peer educators, activists, and advocates to stabilize the lives of people with HIV, especially when those lives are hobbled by generational poverty, mental illness, and governmental neglect. Without a stable life, you can’t make regular doctor appointments, adhere to a complicated pharmaceutical regimen, or access the medical care that can save your life. Once upon a...
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Read MoreNew name, same heart
Historically, AIDS Legal Council of Chicago has been the only agency in Illinois devoted exclusively to serving the legal needs of men, women, and children with HIV. Council staff and volunteers serve clients and community through individual advice and representation; training and outreach to clients and service providers; individual and impact litigation; and administrative and legislative advocacy. Recently we expanded our mission to to also stand up for individuals living with mental illness and experiencing homelessness, and to advocate for children with disabilities and chronic health conditions. In that time we’ve also expanded our work serving low-income people with HIV. We’ve started new free legal clinics all over the city and successfully fought policies that discriminate against people with HIV. To reflect these changes, we are changing our name from AIDS Legal Council of Chicago to Legal Council for Health Justice. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. In the coming months, we will debut a new logo, website, and much more! We wish to remind all of our past and present supporters and stakeholders that no matter how they know us, that our new name and expanded mission will help all of our three strong programs – AIDS Legal Council, the Homeless Outreach Project and Chicago Medical-Legal Partnership for Children – to grow and flourish. We hope you love the new name as much as we do, and hope you will be our staunch partner in building healthier and happier tomorrows for people challenged by chronic, disabling, and stigmatized health and social conditions....
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Read MoreAgency Expansion
Historically, AIDS Legal Council has been the only agency in Illinois devoted exclusively to serving the legal needs of men, women, and children with HIV. Council staff and volunteers serve clients and community through individual advice and representation; training and outreach to clients, case managers and service providers; individual and impact litigation; and administrative and legislative advocacy. Now, we are expanding our mission to serve two additional populations: persons who are homeless and disabled (SSI Homeless Outreach Project); and children with disabilities and chronic health conditions and their families (Chicago Medical-Legal Partnership for Children). The Chicago Medical-Legal Partnership for Children is an established, research-based intervention that joins medical care, social support services, and expert legal assistance to improve care, promote better health and lower costs. Each year, our program connects hundreds of underserved and at-risk children and families in Chicago to a full range of essential health, income, educational, and developmental services and supports that ensure healthier, more productive lives. Our legal team trains and supports medical, social service, and education providers to identify barriers that have a profoundly negative impact on child health and development. Team members then meet with referred adults, children and families to resolve issues via direct representation. Finally, the project conducts systemic advocacy to reduce health and education disparities for all vulnerable children across the state. For more information, contact project director Amy Zimmerman. The SSI Homeless Outreach Project is an innovative venture that pairs behavioral health and benefits advocacy to work with homeless individuals with mental health issues to secure vital health services and income supports. Staff provide expert legal representation to obtain Social Security benefits, access to health coverage and related linkages and advocacy to promote coordination of care on behalf of clients in metropolitan Chicago who are chronically homeless or at risk for homelessness. The project plays an integral and supportive role in the landscape of local organizations and government agencies that assist homeless individuals. For more information, contact project director Lisa Parsons. Make no mistake — we will continue to provide the same high-quality, responsive and expert legal assistance to populations affected by HIV/AIDS through our AIDS Legal Council project. Only now, we are bringing this expert model of “legal care” to more populations. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at 312-427-8990 or...
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Not with us at #HamiltonCHI tonight? Tune into CBS Chicago at 10 p.m.
Our child health advocacy director Amy Zimmerman was interviewed by reporter Dana Kozlov about a new transportation policy from Chicago Public Schools that threatens to deny hundreds of preschoolers with special needs access to early learning and special education services that they deserve.
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