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A $5.2 million, three-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to USC's Arnold School of Public Health will assist communities around the nation in their efforts to prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The CDC grant, given in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health, will establish the CDC/ASPH Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership at USC's Arnold School of Public Health to help community-based organizations (CBOs) in their efforts to battle the deadly virus.
"Since the first cases of AIDS were identified in the early 1980s, community-based organizations have taken the lead in providing HIV-prevention education and services," said Donna Richter, the lead researcher on the grant.
"The CDC recognizes the critical need to be partners with these organizations in the ongoing public-health effort to prevent HIV and AIDS and to support these organizations in their efforts to help the men, women and children of their individual communities."
Richter, whose own public health career has been focused on HIV/AIDS education and prevention, said the institute will enhance the ability of CBOs to provide effective and sustained HIV-prevention programs to groups in their towns and cities that can be hard to reach.
HIV prevention program managers working in community organizations throughout the United States will apply to become institute scholars, who will participate in four intensive, one-week sessions at a training facility in Atlanta and also receive training through distance learning. The institute will accept about 45 scholars annually. The program will target specific needs of CBO professionals, including grassroot advocacy, strategic planning and assessment, program development, implementation and evaluation, application of research to the organization's needs, health education and promotion, and marketing.
"At the end of their training, scholars will have a basic strategic management plan for their organization and a prevention program that is targeted for use within their community," Richter said. "The training model for the institute that we have developed already has been shown to be effective."
Over the past three years, a USC research team led by Richter has developed the model for the institute and conducted a pilot study on its effectiveness. Nearly 100 participants from 29 states and U.S. territories have received training and are applying the institute's principles in their communities.
A follow-up study of 24 scholars who completed the training in 2001 found that their training had helped them to expand HIV-prevention programming in their communities. They also reported increased use of electronic communication and technology (Web sites, listservs, etc.) in HIV education efforts. Participants also said that they conducted more advocacy-related activities and marketing campaigns for their organization.
"The CDC estimates that approximately 1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV," Richter said, noting that about 54 percent of HIV infections occur among African Americans and 19 percent are among Hispanics. "About 12,000 people in South Carolina have HIV. Improved drug and clinical treatments have led to a decline in the incidence of AIDS, but this downward trend is not evenly distributed across all groups.
"Community organizations play a vital role in the fight against HIV," she said. "But for a prevention program to be successful, we must help organizations develop the skills they need so that they can remain viable and continue providing effective programs within their communities. This is especially true for those organizations that are providing services to minority populations, which are carrying the heaviest burden of HIV disease."
11/02
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