Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (BLCA) of Detroit  'Death Can Wait' Campaign

Leading the fight Against HIV and AIDS in Detroit

By HB Meeks/Tell Us USA News Network

BLCA of Detroit is an affiliate of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), a New York based organization that coordinates and organizes volunteer efforts of the indigenous Black leadership to meet the challenge of fighting HIV/AIDS in their local communities. The NBLCA has affiliates in cities throughout the United States where African- American communities are hardest hit by the HI V/AIDS epidemic, including Albany, Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Nassau County, New York City, Oakland, Rochester, Syracuse, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) was founded in November 1987. The NI3LCA’s mission is to inform, coordinate and organize the volunteer efforts of the indigenous Black leadership. including clergy, elected of1icals, medical practitioners, business professionals, social policy experts. and the media to meet the challenge of fighting HIV/AIDS in their local communities. The NBLCA conducts policy, research and advocacy on HIV and AIDS to ensure effective participation of our leadership in all policy and resource allocation decisions at the national, state and local levels of communities of African descent nationwide. The NBLCA is the oldest and largest not-for-profit organization of its kind in the United States.
 

Since its inception, the NBLCA has served thousands of organizations and institutions through community development, technical assistance, and formulation of public policy; helped to raise over $1 billion in new federal funding for HIV/AIDS and public health-related direct service organizations serving communities of African descent; created the first programs for the Black clergy to develop strategies for addressing the complexity of HIV/AIDS problems.

The NBLCA serves as chief consultant on HIV/AIDS and public health—related issues to numerous national organizations. Among them are its partnerships with the Congressional Black Caucus and its official partnerships with the National Association of Flack Social Workers, the National Caucus of Black State Legislators, representing over OU l3lak state elected officials, and the National Baptist Ministers’ Convention with a membership of 8.2 million, The NBLCA has served as an advisor on HIV/AIDS—related issues to the United Nations arid to the nations of Gabon, Central African Republic, Uganda, and the Bahamas, among others.

Black clergy are the core leadership element of NBLCA Leadership Mobilization Model for several important reasons. First, the Black church has proven capacity - during the civil rights and post civil rights eras - to create partnerships and alliances necessary to bridge community stakeholders in shaping public policy. Second, the Black church remains largely independent from government and its funding stream for AIDS services. Lastly, the Black church underwrites the cost of political participation by providing reliable and regular contact with elected officials, meeting places to develop tactics and strategies, a channel for distributing public policy information, and an organized mass base to mobilize in advocacy.