BY MICHAEL K. LAVERS
Washington Blade
A D.C. HIV/AIDS service organization has launched a campaign designed to offset a potential decrease in federal funding if a deal is not reached by the end of the year to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
The Neighbors in Need Campaign Whitman-Walker Health launched earlier this month hopes to raise $200,000 by Dec. 31 to mitigate potential cuts to the slightly more than $3.1 million it receives in Ryan White Care Act funds for HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. Whitman-Walker also receives more than $200,000 in funding from grants, and the federal and district governments for its STD clinic, which is the largest in the city.
“It’s not this kind of mass appeal around Whitman-Walker, the sky is falling or any of that,” Don Blanchon, executive director of Whitman-Walker, told the Washington Blade in a Nov. 19 interview at his 14th Street, N.W., office. “It’s we have some things we know that won’t get covered long-term that are likely to get hit by any federal reduction, whether it’s the sequestration or if it’s some deal on the deficit long-term. But we’re just trying to get ahead of it. We’re trying to make a really good and strong appeal to people now.”
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