the client advocates from "it takes a village" (photoshop courtesy of marc olmsted)
i was privileged to spend all day last friday at "priorities" which is a process to determine the size of percentages of ryan white funding that are distributed to treatment categories for persons with hiv. these funds are earmarked as the "payer of last resort" and the percentages are determined by the planning council (of which i am co-chair).
as we work a year into the future, and we had received a very high dollar amount this year, it was decided to base our figures on a 2007 amount for care, which meant to cut about a million dollars out of our budget. coupled with that,this year we had added a new medical clinic for undocumented persons which naturally took a sizable amount of cash to start and will also require dollars to operate.
it is a daunting task to discuss the wheres and whys of support services that are available to plwh/a. all categories seem relevant and necessary, but at the end of the day, our job is to stay within budget. we made decisions and none of us were really bent out of shape by the end of the day. this is an accomplishment, especially considering some of the stories i have heard about past priorities processes.
either way, with the extra million or without, it is merely a drop in the bucket of expenses that are really involved. the hospital and clinic bills are staggering and could easily eat up the entire allocation. the other services such as dental, emergency housing, transportation, substance abuse, mental health, could probably do the same. it's very challenging to try to allocate funds that are merely a glass of water thrown on a bonfire. but i was glad to have the opportunity to try.
i am playing around with a photo of a few colleagues with the idea of using the faces in a flyer for our services. that's betty boo (she is wearing betty boop earrings), donn r, and myself.
here is a remake of a 1978 hit that i used to really love. funny, but i happen to love this band, too- the silver sun pickups.
2 comments:
I like the way momentum seems to be working in your life. All that service work just keeps carrying forward like a wave.
I hadn't even noticed "it takes a village" when I chose that artwork for the background. It really works though.
I so respect the work that you and your colleagues do. I concur with Marc, the background artwork is a great match. Like the Silver Sun Pickups too, I hadn't heard this song in years and I've never heard this group before. As I've pointed out before, I love your taste in music.
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