Boston AIDS Consortium Records

Background on Boston AIDS Consortium

Established in 1988 under the Harvard School of Public Health by a group of community leaders, the Boston AIDS Consortium (BAC) sought to address the complex needs of individuals at risk or living with HIV/AIDS in the Boston area. By 1995 the BAC became an independent non-profit organization, but continued to bring together community leaders and stakeholders to address the service needs of people and families living with HIV/AIDS. The BAC also played an important role in informing policy development and facilitating collaboration on behalf of advocacy efforts and planning for community needs. The consortium defined its work by grouping it into four categories: community planning and support, technical assistance and capacity development, education and advocacy, and community convening.

Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the BAC also coordinated the allocation and distribution of the Ryan White CARE Act funds within the Greater Boston area and oversaw training for the various community organizations. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, passed in 1990, became the largest federally funded program in the United States for people living with HIV/AIDS. The fund, named in honor of Indiana teenage Ryan White, who contracted AIDS through a tainted hemophilia treatment and was expelled from school because of the disease, distributed money to municipalities to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and under-insured victims of AIDS and their families. The act also funded local and state primary medical care providers, support services, healthcare provider training programs, and provided technical assistance to such organizations.