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January 5, 2011

CHAMP to Close, Networks to Continue

Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project: "The CHAMP Board and the broader HIV/AIDS community have recognized the critical importance of the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) and Project UNSHACKLE in pushing the HIV prevention justice vision forward, and we have already identified two organizations that are eager to provide them with the institutional support necessary to further their work.

The HIV PJA will be housed by one of its co-founding organizations, AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). Founded by community activists and physicians in 1985... Julie Davids will continue to coordinate the HIV PJA as a decentralized network under the auspices of AFC.

"Project UNSHACKLE will continue as a project of the New York City AIDS Housing Network/Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (NYCAHN/VOCAL), a powerful model of grassroots community organizing and PWA leadership development. NYCAHN/VOCAL was CHAMP’s fiscal sponsor for our first several years, and throughout CHAMP’s existence, many NYCAHN/VOCAL members and staff have been involved as staff, members and Board members. Project UNSHACKLE fits well into their current work on healthcare in jails and prisons, and in the experiences of many of their members with imprisonment, probation, parole and re-entry.

"The Board would also like to recognize the enduring contribution of two individual CHAMP leaders in particular—Julie Davids, CHAMP’S visionary founder and current Director, and Waheedah Shabazz-El, CHAMP’s long-term, volunteer Community Organizer/Trainer and powerful organizer on behalf of women and all people living with HIV."

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