The New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council, also known as NORAPC, is a federally mandated public planning body funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (formerly known as the CARE Act).  Established in 1990, the Ryan White program strives to help people infected with HIV get into medical care and stay in care. The Ryan White program provides services to meet the medical need in several areas of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through different funding streams.  These funding streams, including Part A, are described below:

• Part A funds go to local areas that have been hit hardest by the HIV epidemic. These areas are called Eligible Metropolitan Areas (EMAs) including our eight surrounding parishes: Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany. Part A money is managed by the Chief Elected Official of the major city or county government who works with the Part A Planning Council in making decisions about how to use funds.
  
  
• Part B funds are for the whole state and managed by the state HIV/AIDS Program.
  
  
• Part C funds public and private non-profit primary health care providers for outpatient medical services called early intervention services.
  
  
• Part D funds community organizations that serve women, infants, children and youth with HIV disease and their families.
  

Established in 1993, the New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council (NORAPC) is the public planning body that plans for the distribution of federal Ryan White Part A funds.  NORAPC roles and responsibilities include:

• Set up rules to help the planning council to operate smoothly and fairly (planning council operations including bylaws, open meetings, grievance procedures, and conflict of interest policies.)
  
  
• Train in planning. Once trained, the main task for the planning council is to find out what services are needed and what populations need care (needs assessment).
  
  
• Decide what services to fund in the area (set priorities) and then decide how much Part A money should be used for each of these services (allocate resources).
  
  
• Develop a plan on how to provide these services (comprehensive care plan).
  
  
• Look at ways that Part A services work to fill gaps in care with other Ryan White programs (through the Statewide Coordinated Statement of Need) as well as other services like Medicaid (coordination).
  
  
• Evaluate how efficiently providers are selected and paid and how well their contracts are monitored. This is called assessing the efficiency of the administrative mechanism.