SPEAKER_00 0:39

Thank you for joining the 45-minute town hall series created and produced by HIV Possible, Empower HIV Health and the Black Public Health Academy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Suvall, Jacksonville. Man, we can't say enough good things about Jacksonville. That was great. It was. First, you know, me always getting lost.

unknown 1:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yeah, I think it's just ridiculous much I get lost this time. You see, some, yeah, we get as lost as we did in the other place. Yeah, because I mean that you know, Jacksonville got a lot of oh, you think you're getting off on this exit and it takes you to that exit. Yeah, and don't miss an exit. Don't miss the exit. And the exit's on either side of the road. Yeah, what is that about? Let me find out what that is about. I we need to go back to the construction people and be like, you need to just stick to one side.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

There must have been a man.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yeah, but anyway. No offense. No offense to the county construction. And but look, we found the spot. It was we hosted the Jacksonville event. No birds. No birds. No birds. First of all, that name by itself. Right. And the foot, the place was a quaint little spot um down on North Liberty. North Liberty Street. North Liberty Street. And you know, before we even got there, that street had some of the most beautiful, quaint little, well, not even little, huge homes with those big grandma porches on them. I just had to drive slow and take it in.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Almost ran into a curve trying to look at a house.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Don't mess with me like that. But I ain't hit nothing. Ain't nothing hit me. Right. But you know, I just pulled over. Can't you say I just pulled over? Oh, yeah. Okay, she pulled over. I pulled over swiftly. But look, the houses there were absolutely gorgeous. And this looks like they're remodeling a lot of um on that street. And it was just really, really quaint. And and I just love that community over there. It was cute. It was. But now getting to Nobur. Nobird's was the most um cutesy, cute and uh character. It had so much character.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Relaxing, homey.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Homey, yes. Great venue. It was a great venue. And then they have the piano there at the top of the uh top of the room. And it looked like just a jazz spot. You know, reminded you of an old-fashioned jazz lounge with the color-coordinated sofas and the chairs. I could see a nice yeah, Billy Holiday, right? Look the teacup. Now they had table settings, y'all. Get this. On some of the tables, they had the old-fashioned, small, entire teacup sets.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Now, where they found these antiques like this, I don't know, but I truly want me one of those teacup sets.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Want to get a little crumpet and tea?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yes. What's that? The little uh uh cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

That's the crumpets there, the crumpets.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

That's the type of vibe that we had tonight, and it was absolutely amazing. It was uh shout out to the caterers there. Um, did you get that name? No. Um, they were showing a foxy witty because let me tell you, we had the little hors d'oeuvres going on on the veggies, they had the veggies and they had the what was that pepperoni? Pepperoni, a salami, salami and cheese, and then they had all the little raspberries and blueberry. It was real fruit. Now let me get to the real one now. They had bump chicken salad. That chicken salad was was good. Oh my goodness, yeah. I ain't had no chicken salad like that in a long time. Yeah, we're gonna have to come back just for that.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, they had a nice little spread from like I think like like different cheeses, brie with jam and all kind of cute little things, cute little things, and it fit the atmosphere, it made me want to get some crumpets and tea.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Some crumpets and tea, exactly, exactly. Yeah, so let's go into the conversation. Y'all, the conversation here in Jacksonville was absolutely wonderful, dynamic, it really was. So thinking back on, and and mind you, we just left. So y'all forgive my senior mind. It's is it goes in and out sometimes. But thinking back on tonight, the uh the atmosphere taking in, the atmosphere taking in on you know the the the food and everything, the conversation tonight was really, really good.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

A lot about the conversation tonight was more so around prevention, right, than any of the other conversations that we had.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

There was to speak on reduced stigma, meeting people where they're at, which is very important. Yeah, just having that peer advocate voice in the community, how it's really needed. Uh it yeah, there was some, you could tell there was a lot of passion in the room that wanted to be, you know, shared and expressed and heard. Yeah, they wanted to be heard, they really wanted to they had valid points, very valid points, and I agree with everything that was said. So again, again, work that's gotta be done in our communities.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yes, and when we when we when they spoke about um when we asked the questions, and we gave some really good questions. So I'm gonna repeat one. One of the questions was because you notice this is happening around the ADAP pro uh uh crisis and the things that were in between, we're in between um the special enrollment period that just ended, and then we're also in between the stopgap funding, which is supposed to end um the end of June, June 30th, right? So the question was come July 15th, and you have a client that is now has no medication, a client that has no insurance, a client that is, you know, really fearful of you know falling out of out of care and not having their meds, you know, what do we do? Who do we get them to? How do we get them there? What what steps does it take for us to keep this client in care and keep their uh HIV um undetectable? You know, and that conversation, um, when we asked that question sparked like like the passion just went like from we were already at like what a six and it just jumped to like 13 with that because it was like, where do we get these people to? How do we get them there? And the answer was more so like back to the health department again because there were really no like other organizations to fully get them to. Do you agree with that or was I wrong?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

So I may have been on a different side of the room, but what I heard was that they would not send them to the health department because their family sister cousin knew them, and before they even left their appointment, three people down the road already knew already knew their business. And so they were transporting these clients to Can Community Health or um AIDS, yeah, which is AIDS Healthcare Foundation. So that's the that's the room that I heard that um a lot of people are you know removing themselves from the health department, however, calma, they did um say that they had a great connection with the linkage coordinator, Mr. Um Antonio Kelly, um, that he was really good in the community and getting people into service within 24 hours. So we have to give him a shout out.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yes, Mr. Antonio Kelly, yes, and maybe that's the part that I got hooked on when we were talking about Mr. Antonio Kelly. And you know what? You are absolutely I think I was in the kitchen getting some more of that chicken salad. You may have been, but you know, I'm telling you, y'all, that chicken salad was the bomb.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Uh I was different color carrots. I was going off on them things.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

But you know, that conversation there when I came back into the room, um, they were talking about um your business is really put out here. Like there's no privacy, there's no um hippa uh uh uh of PII, and yeah, you know, that stuff is really not happening, it's not seen here because the county, what seems to be such a big county, is really a small county when it comes to the community, everybody kind of knows everybody, right? So, how do we how do we tackle that part?

SPEAKER_02 11:15

That's that education, and you know what, and accountability. Because if someone knows that their information is spread, they need to let you know that organization know so it could be nipped in the bud. Um, because that is that's forbidden. You know, that's just you don't do that. Um, but at the same time, we gotta reduce stigma because you don't have people that go out and say, Oh, you know, I have heart disease or diabetes, and they're fearful of somebody learning that. And once people get over the stigma about HIV, because it's not in life, it's not a life-threatening uh disease anymore. It's you know it's a chronic condition, it's a chronic condition, it's like treating heart disease. And so um I think once individuals get past that stigma, it won't be such a big idea, but at the same time, those TIPA laws were in place for a reason if people need to respect people's uh diagnosis and um with anything, whether it's heart disease, right? But not anybody else's business, exact.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And one of the things that I I brought up, and you know, I'm heavy in the faith space, right? So when I asked the question for uh faith connection there in the building, it was almost like still taboo for um the faith connection to, you know, like where is the church in this? Why is the church, the church is the place for healing of the soul, so why wouldn't it be a place of healing for the body and the mind?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Right, you know, it it it's all about that because we're not preaching abstinence, and what churches and I'm not gonna I'm not finger pointing, but what individuals need to realize is that you know, a sin is a sin, and that's what the church is for. And no one is to judge. We have no right to judge anybody, you know, anybody. That's not our space, right? And so being able to preach that, you know, just okay, if if you're not, you know, yes, absence is your first your first choice, but however common should something occur, at least protect yourself.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

And that's the message that should be relayed in any space. In any space, absolutely. Um that you couldn't have said that any better, because I truly believe that, you know, talking about uh protection is not void of preaching abstinence, but yet we have to own our own autonomy, right? We have to, you know, protect people because you know we're not only talking about youth, we're talking about, let's say, like how you said, what somebody married, gets a divorce, right? Or we're talking about somebody who was um uh uh assaulted in in some type of physical way, right? We're talking about people who are heavy in the in the church, and you we don't want to talk about it. We have to stop this.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, sex is natural.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

It is the Bible talks. Did you know the Bible talks about sex?

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Yeah, I'm sure it does.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

It does, it mentions he when that Bible says he came to know her. That's right, baby, read your Bible, it's in there, it's in there.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

They talk about her, he came to know her, literally, literally, won't get me started on that subject.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

But look, so when we look at you know the questions and things that were asked, you know, again we found another space where um there was really no outside organizations, no uh, you know, real not grassroots, not grassroots, that part, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

But there are large organizations in the in the area, in the area, and everybody kept mentioning can community and AHS and AHS. And I do know they have mobile, mobile vans that go to different areas that I do know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

And matter of fact, one of the ladies did mention um about having the mobile areas, not just in the the the spaces where you know it's most needed, but making it a more general um type of thing to everyone.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Because everybody everybody is HP doesn't discriminate what you look like, what your income is, it sure doesn't. What your religious preferences are, what your sexual preferences are, it does not discriminate anyway.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

So um we were asked to actually come back, yes, because the convening, although intimate, right? A lot of people had a lot of things going on um this weekend, and being that we held it on a Friday, we discovered that maybe a Friday isn't the best day to hold it on for Jacksonville. Um, the time was good, we had good timing from six to eight, but um we were asked to um our second round for Jacksonville, yeah, and to be able to host it at the same space with you know the same case. We gotta get back to that caterer. Look here, we have to get her back. You just want that chicken salad. I do, I'm telling you. That chicken salad was the bomb. But you know, all in all, we had a good turnout, we had good conversations, despite it being graduation day. Exactly. We had a lot of graduations going on, and hey, guess what? We didn't talk about Gilead. Uh I mean, uh yeah, Gilead being in the building. Yeah. Gilead came to the building.