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Ryan White Part A funds are received by United Way of Long Island through Nassau County. In 1992, the first Part A grant funding was awarded to the Nassau-Suffolk region at approximately $2 million dollars. Over the years that amount has risen as high as $6.5 million and most recently in 2007 the funding level is $4.4 million dollars. To date, Ryan White has allocated over $32 million dollars in funding to agencies in Nassau and Suffolk Counties that provided services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS. A portion of the Part A funding is designated under the Minority AIDS Initiative, the goal of which is to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities in disproportionately impacted minority communities. United Way of Long Island performs two major functions related to these funds: administration and planning council support.
The purpose of Part A of the Act is to provide emergency services to HIV-positive individuals in eligible metropolitan areas with more than 2,000 AIDS cases. Long Island became eligible for these funds in 1992. The legislation requires that a single grantee be selected (Nassau or Suffolk County), but that the local governments develop an agreement on how the funds are shared. Nassau and Suffolk counties agreed that Nassau would be the grantee and that they would select a "support agency" to operate a planning council for these funds and to administer the programs that are funded. The counties selected United Way of Long Island as the support agency in 1997.
United Way of Long Island provides staffing support for the Nassau-Suffolk HIV Health Services Planning Council. This 44-member planning body meets at least quarterly and has six standing subcommittees: Executive Committee; Outreach Committee; Data, Needs and Priorities Committee; Policy Advisory Committee (joint committee with Part B planning group); Comprehensive Service Plan Development Committee (joint committee with Part B planning group); and Grievance Committee.
There are also two committees that have been established as ad-hoc committees as needed: the Housing Network and Consumer Advisory Group are two of the current ad-hoc committees. In planning for the use of funds, the Planning Council sponsors community meetings/public hearings, conducts surveys of providers and consumers, and gathers data from a variety of sources.
United Way also administers the Part A funds (administration). This includes writing the grant application to the federal government, providing staff support to the counties for the request for proposal process related to funding of specific providers, developing and monitoring contracts with the agencies selected for funding, collecting data on funded programs and developing reports for the Health Resources and Services Administration and the counties.
Click here for a list of currently funded Ryan White Part A providers
Click here for a copy of the nomination form to join the Planning Council
For more information, contact Ellen Otto, program assistant, HIV/AIDS Grants Management at eotto@unitedwayli.org or 631.940.3717.
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