Community leaders push for Pritzker to fund Black-led HIV/AIDS programs

[February 08, 2023]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A coalition of Black community leaders is calling out the Pritzker administration for not doing more to fund HIV and AIDS programs in their communities.

Tuesday was National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. In Springfield, members of the Legislative Black Caucus welcomed activists from across the state to advocate for more state funding to combat HIV and AIDS. They said despite only making up 14% of Illinois’ population, Black residents make up nearly half of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses and get very little state funding.

Creola Kizart Hampton, the volunteer chair for Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity, said despite a measure passing in 2006 to provide funding for Black-led HIV/AIDS programs, year after year it’s been diminished.

“The Illinois Department of Public Health has $103 million for HIV and AIDS and less than half a million dollars goes to [Black-led] organizations in its entirety across the state,” Hampton said during a news conference in Springfield. “The disparity is shameful. It should be criminal.”

Other Illinois organizations are being funded, the group said, with the $103 million in federal pass-through funds for HIV/AIDS programs.

Members of the Black community took time on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Tuesday in Springfield to publicly tell the Pritzker administration they need to adequately fund Black-led programs.
- Greg Bishop / The Center Square

The group said there’s $15 million in the fund for Black-led HIV and AIDS programs now, but that’s from COVID-19 relief dollars, not from the state’s General Revenue Fund they say should be funding the services.

Hampton said the funds that are available are under a “chokehold” by IDPH.

“It is because of the system racial barriers in the system of Illinois Department of Public Health. And yes, [Gov. J.B. Pritzker], please look. It’s close to home. It’s in your house,” she said. “And that’s where he needs to look to uncover, I’m going to say it, the rats that are eating up the funding that’s supposed to go to Black-led organizations and it’s not.”

The group said it doesn't have paid lobbyists working on its behalf to secure funds, but will be working to get its share of available resources.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.