Whitman-Walker To Cut Staff
DCist checks in with the struggling clinic's budget woes. Possibly 25 percent of its staff is slated to be cut. Not unlike a newspaper! This could mean more tragic stats in the way of new HIV infections in a city already struggling with the epidemic.
From the Post:
"We plan a return to aggressive grass-roots outreach in high-risk communities," executive director Donald Blanchon said. "We want to be on the right street corners with the right information addressing people who are truly at risk."
Whitman-Walker is remaking itself and hoping to draw more patients while recovering from a budget crisis that forced deep cuts and layoffs in 2005. The clinic ended last year about $300,000 in the red, a fraction of the $950,000 deficit it ran two years ago but not enough progress for Blanchon to call the $22 million operation financially viable.
4:24 pm
If Witman-Walker Clinic cuts it staff, does this mean the writers over at DCist will get second rate treatments in the future?
1:08 am
This is possible. There are many great grass-roots organizations working to stop the spread of HIV out there. StopAIDS in San Francisco comes to mind, and a group in Chicago whose name escapes me. But it requires strond innovative leaders, strong innovative activists and a willingness to support experimentation by the funders. It also requires delivering blunt messages in contemporary ways. This means that their can't be the constant censorship or fear of censorship of the appropriate messages. I don't know whether WWC or DC has it in them to be aggressive about this.