Chicago seeks volunteers for HIV groups

Chicago's top AIDS officials last month announced that two HIV/AIDS planning and oversight organizations in the city are actively seeking applicants to serve two-year terms on the panels, the Chicago Free Press reports. Volunteers are being sought for the 35-member HIV Prevention Planning Group, which distributes HIV prevention funds in the metro Chicago area, and for the 50-member Chicago-area HIV Services Planning Council, which works with the city's health department to distribute funds for HIV/AIDS care and treatment services. Gay and bisexual men as well as people of color are especially being sought for the panels to represent communities where HIV infection rates are rising. "We always try to recruit a diverse group of people who represent the community, especially the communities that are impacted by HIV," Chris Brown, assistant commissioner for STD/HIV/AIDS programs at CDPH, told the Free Press. "We look at people with various risk factors. We try to have a membership that mirrors the epidemic."