HRC Gears Up for United States Conference on AIDS 2015
The 19th annual United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) will take place this week in Washington, D.C. USCA seeks to increase the strength and diversity of the community-based response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic through education, training, new partnerships, collaboration and networking.
NMAC (formerly the National Minority AIDS Council) will host the USCA, which is the largest AIDS-related gathering in the U.S. The USCA brings together thousands of people from all sectors and every front of the struggle against HIV, including case managers and physicians, public health workers and advocates and policymakers and people living with HIV or AIDS.
HRC will help kick-off the conference on Wednesday, September 9, with a pre-conference session titled, “Institute on HIV and Employment.” The National Working Positive Coalition organized the daylong event, which will include panel presentations from respected researchers, advocates, government and non-government officials and community representatives. The institute will highlight the latest research in the field of HIV and AIDS and employment, collaborative and innovative service models, best practices from the field, government initiatives and workplace policy approaches.
HIV Action Day was also added to the agenda as a pre-conference activity. NMAC and AIDS United have teamed up to provide a comprehensive training on Tuesday, September 8, to prepare individuals to lobby on Capitol Hill. The following day, individuals will meet with their respective senators and representatives.
The themes of this year’s plenaries include black lives matter, federal policy and a southern initiative. Plenaries speakers include Congresswoman Robin Kelly, activist DeRay McKesson, White House Director of National AIDS Policy Douglas Brooks, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and HRC’s Noel Gordon. Additionally, the Prancing Elites will perform and Leader Pelosi will receive the Elizabeth Taylor Legacy Award from the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.