Communications

• Demand increased coverage of the AIDS epidemic in national African American publications, and hold briefings for journalists on AIDS among African Americans.

• Request that AIDS be treated holistically in news stories by removing the gap between what the headlines imply and what the text conveys, and by ensuring that more articles include personal accounts of people living with HIV.

• Encourage all television networks to broadcast responsible condom advertising, especially during programs targeted to young people.

• Petition the entertainment industry to address the AIDS epidemic in the African American community through television programs, music, and movies.

Prevention

• Urge national organizations to place HIV prevention at the top of their agendas.

• Develop culturally relevant programs to educate the community about prevention.

• Encourage church leaders to learn about AIDS so that they can teach their congregations about acceptance and motivate them to help families affected by the epidemic.

• Ask church leaders to give sermons on HIV prevention, particularly during Black History Month (February), the National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS (the first week of March), National AIDS Awareness Month (October), and World AIDS Day (December 1). Church leaders can also distribute appropriate pamphlets and flyers at those times.

• Enlist professors and students at historically black colleges to hold discussion groups on campus -- especially for incoming students -- about AIDS in the African American community.

• Lobby for increased research on prevention programs within African American communities.

• Start a campaign to obtain funding for AIDS programs, or support already existing community efforts to raise money.

• Convince foundations, government agencies, and donors to direct funds to organizations that conduct AIDS prevention and education within African American communities.

Public Policy

• Increase the visibility of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) and establish strong coalitions between NMAC and national African American organizations with interests in health.

• Provide opportunities for organizations that work with Washington lobbyists -- such as the NAACP and the National Urban League -- to learn more about AIDS public health policy.

• Establish and publicize a central repository for AIDS information. Make sure that it is accessible to the African American community.

• Help empower African American communities -- through education and financial support -- to influence public health policies on HIV.

• Ensure that African American communities benefit from government funding initiatives.

Services and Care

• Develop strategies to address the health and social needs of the hundreds of thousands of African Americans already infected with HIV.

• Ensure that the necessary medications and clinical trials are available to those infected.

• Support sterile needle and syringe programs.

• Provide continuing education to African American physicians, nurses, and other health care workers.

• Ensure that managed care systems make care affordable and accessible for people with HIV.

• Ensure that the reforms in Medicaid, welfare, and health care address the needs of all people.