| The Ryan White CARE Act, a piece of federal legislation
sponsored by Senators Kennedy and Waxman was passed in 1990. The
bill allowed for federal disaster funds to be appropriated to cities and
states particularly hard hit by HIV Disease. The CARE Act also required
funded states and cities to engage in a comprehensive planning process
for direct services to People Living With HIV/AIDS. The North Central
District AIDS Coalition was formed in May 1991 in response to the Pennsylvania
Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/AIDS regionalized planning strategy.
The Coalition was required to begin disbursing direct service funds immediately
for a fiscal year 1991/92 starting date. |
| The founding members of the Coalition were primarily
people already associated with AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) and Department
of Health staff. In fact, the first lead agency, later to be referred
to as fiscal agent, was the Williamsport-based ASO, AIDS Resource Alliance.
The NCDAC set consumer involvement as a high priority from its inception.
The By-laws adopted in October 1991 reflected this consumer orientation
by setting a goal that one third of the membership should be consumers.
NCDAC involvement grew to include clergy, drug and alcohol providers, nurses,
health care administrators, community members and case managers.
The Coalition selected Family Health Services of Bellefonte as the fiscal
agent for the Coalition effective July 1, 1992. |
| The NCDAC held its first goal-setting meeting
in December 1992 and met the top goal of hiring a staff person in August
1993. Mary Jane Isenberg was the first Coalition Coordinator and
she provided much of the impetus and legwork to move the Coalition to the
next stage of organizational development. The NCDAC was incorporated
on October 20, 1993 and received 501 (c) (3) status on February 2, 1994. |
| NCDAC continued its fiscal agent relationship
with Family Health Services of Bellefonte through June 30, 1995.
On July 1, 1995, NCDAC became its own fiscal agent and contracted with
the PA Department of Health to subcontract and administer approximately
$850,000.00 in funds for the twelve county area through June 1996. |
| From August through December 1994, the Coalition
contracted with an independent consultant to develop an assessment of needs
of persons who were HIV infected in the North Central Region. In
January of 1995, the Board was presented with the completed document The
Needs of People Living with HIV/AIDS in North Central Pennsylvania - An
Assessment. This assessment was used to prioritize future services
and develop specific short-term programs. |
| In the spring of 1996 NCDAC signed a three-year,
$2,000,000 contract to provide services in the region through June of 1999. |
| A two-year contract was signed in the Spring
of 1999 that provides for funding in the twelve county area through June
30, 2001. |
| At one time, NCDAC contracted with 8 separate
agencies in the 12 county region to provide a wide variety of direct service
and education/prevention programs, including housing, direct emergency
assistance, case management, client advocacy, attendant care, para-professional
services, healing weekends, nutritional supplements, and outreach programs
to at-risk populations. |
| In February of 1996, NCDAC began another needs
assessment process to include Social Service Providers, Medical Providers
and HIV/AIDS Education/Prevention Providers. An independent consultant
was hired and some information was gathered. In July of 1996, Coalition
staff took over the project to see it through its completion. This
document was provided to the Board of Directors in April of 1997. |
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A new needs
assessment was completed and published in October 2008.
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The focus of this needs assessment was on the region's
prevention services to determine other HIV/AIDS prevention resources; identify
possible emerging populations and identify gaps in prevention within the
North Central region..
|
NCDAC employs a staff of four persons including
an Executive Director, an Assistant Director, a Fiscal Administrator and
a Data and Information Coordinator. Staff is charged with all
aspects of contract management and reporting to the Pennsylvania Department
of Health, Division of HIV/AIDS. In addition, staff provides support
and leadership for all planning efforts for HIV/AIDS services for the 12-county
region. |
| The current budget of the North Central District
AIDS Coalition for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2003 is $1,346,259 of
state, federal and housing funds. Of this amount $278,786 is earmarked
for and prevention services. All funds for services are allocated
through an RFP (Request for Proposal) process and funding decisions are
the sole responsibility of a board-appointed Independent Procurement Panel.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has the final approval of all contracts. |
| The Coalition membership, comprised of representatives
of most subcontracted agencies, medical providers, social service providers,
persons living with HIV, interested individuals and a variety of other
professionals meet on a quarterly basis to conduct planning and priority
setting activities. Of that group a Board of Directors has been elected
who oversee the business of the North Central District AIDS Coalition and
supervise staff activities. Approximately 35 to 40 persons attend
the quarterly general membership meetings and serve on the Coalitions various
committees. At the present time approximately 14% of the Coalition
membership are minorities and 17% are persons living with HIV/AIDS.
38% of the membership is male and 62% female. |
| In addition to planning and contract administration,
NCDAC provides a variety of training and technical assistance opportunities
to its subcontracted agencies along with support to a Consumer Advisory
Board that provides input on NCDAC programming. NCDAC also publishes
a quarterly newsletter that is distributed across the region to approximately
1,200 persons and provides up to date treatment information, information
on training opportunities, featured articles on subcontracted agencies
and a wide variety of information related to legislation and regional programs. |
| At the present time, services are accessible
to all residents of the 12-county region and education/prevention activities
are being conducted in 12 of the 12 counties. |
North
Central District AIDS Coalition History
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