Support Chicagoans living with HIV and help end the AIDS epidemic with your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier Instant Ticket from the Illinois Lottery - Chicago Reader

The Illinois Lottery is nationally recognized for its pioneering work with specialty lottery tickets dedicated to raising awareness and funding for specific worthy causes that impact local communities. Nearly twenty years since it introduced its first-in-the-nation specialty ticket, dedicated to breast cancer support and research, the Illinois Lottery is making its biggest impact yet, through a joint specialty instant ticket that supports ten different causes, including HIV/AIDS prevention education and treatment. A portion of every dollar spent on this ticket directly contributes to organizations that support Illinois residents living with AIDS or HIV and work to reduce new transmissions of the chronic medical condition within the state. Now in its second year, the joint ticket—the 7X Bingo Multiplier—costs $5 and is available for purchase at more than 7,000 Illinois Lottery retailers throughout the state. With its spring green background and colorful, eye-catching design, 7X Bingo Multiplier makes a great present for friends, family members, neighbors, and colleagues 18 and over—or play it yourself for a chance to win up to $200,000. Visit the Illinois Lottery website for more information about 7X Bingo Multiplier and the many good causes it supports each year. Read on to learn more about Transforming ReEntry Services, a local nonprofit that supports Chicagoans living with HIV and AIDS, and provides mobile testing services as part of their mission of supporting formerly incarcerated community members. Your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier ticket can help Transforming Reentry Services and other community organizations empower Illinois residents and work toward the statewide Getting to Zero Illinois initiative, which has the goal of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the state by 2030.

Life after incarceration can be full of hope and opportunity, but transitioning back into one’s home community after prison or jail can be overwhelmingly complex. That process can be even more challenging for those living with a chronic health condition such as HIV/AIDS; they must navigate their unique health journeys while rebuilding relationships and attaining stable housing, employment, and transportation. In 2015, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) estimated that 1.5 percent of the state’s incarcerated population had received a positive HIV diagnosis. In 2024, Prison Policy Initiative reviewed data that showed approximately 24,000 men and women were released from Illinois prisons in 2019. Those figures underline the need for HIV and AIDS support services dedicated to those transitioning from incarceration into local communities.

That’s where an organization like Transforming Reentry Services can make a world of difference. Founded in 1982 by Reverend Doris Green and previously known as Men & Women In Prison Ministries (MWIPM), the nonprofit, which has offices in Chicago’s Bronzeville and Austin neighborhoods, assists returning citizens in reconstructing their lives and advocates for community members impacted by the incarceration system. In 2024 alone, the organization provided services to over 2,500 members of the reentry population in 33 communities across the city’s south and west sides.

“The goal was to help people coming home from prison or jail transition back into society as smoothly as possible, getting them whatever they need, whether it’s housing, whether it’s a job,” says Transforming Reentry Services’ deputy director Russell J. Jackson Sr. “We got to a point where we’ve got a niche. Now, we help them get their Social Security card, birth certificate, and state ID—that’s necessary for them to get any other resources that they try to tap into.”

In response to their clients’ needs for accessible medical care, Transforming Reentry Services has made health and wellness a cornerstone of their operations. That includes HIV and AIDS related programs, which are supported by the Illinois Lottery. Through funds raised by the Lottery’s joint specialty ticket, the organization receives a Quality of Life grant through IDPH that supports their work in HIV and AIDS screenings, education, and case management services.

Jackson served as a Transforming Reentry Services case manager before becoming the organization’s deputy director, and he describes a non-judgmental approach that centers the individual as they navigate their personal and medical needs. “When people came home from prison and jail who were HIV positive, I would manage their situation and get them the things that they needed for their special needs,” he said. “We would get them Ubers, get them to the doctor’s appointment, make sure they had their medication, and stuff like that.”

While many people returning home from prison are aware of their HIV status, others are not. That makes education and testing all the more vital. The grant funding Transforming Reentry Services receives through the Lottery specialty ticket program helps to provide resources on HIV and AIDS prevention, medical breakthroughs like PrEP and PEP, and more. While the organization isn’t able to offer clinical services, they often partner with groups like Howard Brown and Alliance Care 360 to help clients access necessary healthcare. Jackson says the majority of their staff members have been certified by IDPH to do non-clinical HIV screenings. “We’ve been doing those for years and years and years. We go out to the community and we do them in our offices on the south and west side,” he says.

Funding through the Illinois Lottery also supports Transforming Reentry Services’ work in lowering new cases of HIV through harm reduction services, which aim to minimize adverse effects associated with drug use and related behaviors, including HIV transmission. In November 2020, the organization became the first Black woman-led syringe access program in Illinois, which has made a direct impact in at-risk communities on the south and west side. “We have a van that we go out in and do outreach, and we pass out clean supplies,” Jackson says. “We’re out just trying to keep people alive. We pass out Naloxone, we pass out Narcan. It’s like we transition into whatever the community needs, in addition to the reentry population.”

You can help Transforming Reentry Services continue their vital work and support Illinoisians living with HIV and AIDS in the reentry population and beyond with your purchase of a 7X Bingo Multiplier Instant Ticket from the Illinois Lottery.

For more information about Transforming Reentry Services, visit transformingreentry.org