For 20 years, The Prevention Partnership has held an Annual Awards Dinner.

The highlight of this event is the honoring of selected individuals or organizations with the agency’s Prevention Person of the Year Award and its VC League Service Award. The Prevention Person of The Year Award is bestowed upon someone who has made noteworthy contributions toward helping to prevent some of the maladies that the agency targets in its prevention programming. Past recipients of this award include Dr. Carol Adams, Secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services; Judge Greg Mathis of “The Judge Mathis Show”; Allison Payne and Sylvia Jones of WGN Channel 9 News; and William Johnson, M.D., Director of the Luck Care Center, an HIV /AIDS treatment facility…to name a few. The VC League Service Award has been awarded to individuals who demonstrate outstanding service in the communities the agency serves. Individuals such as Kwesi Ronald Harris, Rev. Cheravon West, Rita Ashford, and Bishop Simon Gordon are all past recipients of this award.

Beyond the actual awards ceremony, this festive event also offers up good food, good music, and good company. It’s elegant in tone, location, and dress, always fun, and is the agency’s biggest annual fundraising event.

The Prevention Partnership is a member of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s (AFC) Service Providers Council. Being affiliated with AFC affords the agency’s Peer Health Educators (PHEs) the opportunity to form a CommunityDirect team. CommunityDirect teams participate in the AFC’s AIDS Run-Walk.

This is a fundraising endeavor that entails the PHEs soliciting donors who will pledge paying an agreed amount of money for each mile they walk. One hundred percent of the money raised by the agency’s PHE’s will be donated to The Prevent Partnership. The agency will then use it to support HIV/AIDS/STIs prevention programming that it conducts for the PHEs.

The Prevention Partnership has two ongoing fundraising efforts. The first is its Circle of Friends campaign. Through this fundraising drive, those who share the agency’s commitment to fulfilling its mission can make tax-deductible donations. Contributions in any amount are always welcomed.

A second effort involves making available a series of Prevention Tools that can be distributed during prevention-related trainings, seminars, workshops, or other events. These tools provide easy-to grasp explanations and strategies that aid in Conflict Resolution, Active Communication, Anger Management, and Problem-Solving. They’re presented in attractive foldout booklets that The Prevention Partnership sells at a nominal cost.

A special event that The Prevention Partnership conducts annually is Prevention Bowl. This is a Jeopardy-style quiz game where elementary, middle school, and junior high students compete to answer questions correctly about drugs and alcohol; underage drinking; and HIV/AIDS/STI prevention. Many questions also touch on anger management, problem solving, refusal and leadership skills and on building positive self-esteem. This event was first conducted with schools in South Suburban Cook County, but it expanded and now involves several Chicago Public Schools. Although the cost for conducting the event is relatively low, the agency solicits donations for food and prizes for the participants. The agency seeks to have at least one person in the public spotlight to participate in each of its upcoming annual Prevention Bowls. In 2008, St. Louis Rams defensive end Victor Adeyanju was involved in the event and so was WMAQ, Channel 5, news anchor Warner Saunders.

Since The Prevention Partnership is a not-for-profit, it looks to supporters from various sources to supplement the monies it receives from grants, contract work, and fundraisers. All donations the agency receives are tax-deductible, and, upon request, donors can receive written verification for their contributions. The agency also welcomes the help of volunteers who may wish to assist it in its programming activities. More information on how you can support the agency can be found on our website.

5934 W. Lake Street ~ Chicago, Illinois 60644-1833
Phone (773) 378-4195 ~ Fax (773) 378-8190
Email: info@p2online.org
preventionpartnership.org