A PROJECT OF AIDS ARMS’ RED RIBBON SOCIETY
Donate Now
The HIV Crisis and Community Need
Most people believe the HIV epidemic is a thing of the past and nothing to worry about. That’s not the case for over 20,000 people living in North Texas today – Men, women and youth from all zip codes, socioeconomic, ethnic and sexual orientations are impacted by HIV and AIDS. They are your family, partners, friends, coworkers and neighbors – One of them may be you. And while treatment advances have made living with the disease a possibility, do not mistake that possibility for “easy.” The average monthly cost of medications is over $1200 – it climbs as high as $3000. Side effects of those medications can be debilitating and have long term ramifications on major systems of the body such as the heart, brain, kidneys and liver. The insidious loss of health, independence and ability to manage the economic spiral can be devastating to individuals, families and partners.
While the larger Dallas community has become silent about HIV over the past ten years, the number of new HIV cases in Dallas County has continued to climb to nearly 1,000 people per year with the majority of impacted individuals having little access to healthcare due to poverty and other critical barriers to care. The disease has taken advantage of the apathy about its impact and slowly grown to new proportions that now impact our entire community. It has grown more quickly than the HIV continuum of care can manage and is reaching a level of crisis.
A Call to Arms
We must, as a community, stop the silence, come together and fight back against the devastating physical, emotional and economic toll HIV and AIDS continues to have for men, women and youth. We must all act now to stop the reality of 6,500 HIV + people currently out of medical care AND become prepared for increasing demand for affordable, quality outpatient medical and case management services to those living with the disease today.
For North Texas to become the place of health, safety, economic growth and opportunity we all know it can become, AIDS Arms has issued a Call to Arms to the community to step forward and help us fight back against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact. It is time for the apathy and silence about HIV and AIDS to end in the Dallas area – today. Our community’s future depends on us all to respond
Through its Call to Arms, AIDS Arms is expanding its ability to provide HIV prevention, outpatient medical, case management and support services to a fast growing community in need. We need your time, your wisdom and your financial support to help our vision of a healthy and stronger Dallas become a reality. We can be successful on behalf of our current and future clients with your help.
Why Give for HIV – In this video, Dr. Keith Rawlings explains why now is a critical time to invest in quality care for HIV treatment and services.
New Medical Clinic
In combination with AIDS Arms’ existing Peabody Health Center, we have initiated plans for an additional new outpatient medical clinic in Oak Cliff – a primary targeted “red zone” for needed HIV medical services Dallas Area Ryan White Planning Council. The new clinic will substantially increase our capacity to serve HIV+ people in need with state of the art medical services and coordinated case management and support services. The new clinic will also launch onsite laboratory and pharmacy services that will improve access to care, treatment and service quality for all AIDS Arms’ clients. It will also offer an “one stop shop” model where clients receive multiple services from multiple service organizations on site, and provide new, sustaining earned revenue streams for the organization. When fully operational this facility will allow the number of clients receiving our outpatient medical services to increase to 3,500 individuals.
Expanded Service and Capacity to Serve
Our Call to Arms campaign also expands critical support services for clinical and psychosocial needs of our clients that will:
Offer laboratory and pharmacy services on-site, allowing “one-stop” service to increase efficiency and effectiveness for our clients while also improving their adherence to care and health outcomes by eliminating barriers to care and treatment.
Generate new laboratory revenue to help sustain and grow a higher level of operation.
Offer increased access to critical clinical trials and other research projects through our established AIDS Clinical Trial Group of the National Institutes of Health and other sources.
Increase integrated case management and support services with community organizations at one site, as well as subspecialty medical services our clients need.
Increase our HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis C prevention and testing efforts throughout North Texas.
Increase our organizational capacity through expanded and improved information technology, employee development and continuous quality improvement efforts.
We extend an invitation to you to call us for a tour of our facilities and learn more about the story of AIDS Arms and its response to the epidemic through A Call to Arms. Become a part of A Call to Arms and help us fight back against the impact of HIV/AIDS. Together, we will make a difference in the health, economic and quality of life for North Texas. We hope you will become an important part of that difference to our 7,000 clients, our future clients and the North Texas community. Call 214.521.5191 and ask for AIDS Arms Resource Development Department.
