Abstract
Even with the medicalization of HIV/AIDS, bringing programs and services into communities requires effective programs and service delivery systems. Developing and maintaining the capacities of these programs are critical. Because capacity building has become such an important part of HIV prevention work, greater attention must be given to the best practices in this area. In this article, the best practices and lessons learned from one national capacity building initiative are presented. Using a nonexperimental approach, the authors present 4 years of capacity building assistance service provision in the field of HIV prevention.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 373-397 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2008 |
Funding
The African American Capacity Building Initiative (AACBI), a program of the Harm Reduction Coalition, funded by the CDC, is a dynamic initiative aimed at reducing the HIV/AIDS infection rates within the African American community. Harm Reduction Coalition is a national organization, with locations in New York and California, that promotes the health and human rights of drug users. In 2004, AACBI was awarded a 5-year grant to provide capacity building assistance (CBA) as defined by the Capacity Building Branch of the Division of HIV Prevention of the CDC (for more information about the Capacity Building Branch, go to the website http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/cba/index.htm). In conjunction with the larger mission of the Harm Reduction Coalition, AACBI works to mitigate the danger of high-risk behavior in an attempt to safeguard the health and safety of the community. This is accomplished through building the capacity of state and local health departments (HDs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to design, develop, implement, and evaluate effective HIV prevention interventions in the CDC-defined North Region (the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont and the U.S. Caribbean Territories—Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). AACBI provides CBA to any program requesting help and which also meet CDC guidelines. Since the program’s inception, AACBI has worked with six state HDs and close to 30 community-based organizations and/or stakeholders on short-and long-term projects. Capacity building services are available for free to CDC-funded and non-CDC-funded service providers that target African American communities. The AACBI program is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Program Announcement #04019). This publication’s contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the CDC.
Keywords
- African Americans
- Assessment tools
- Capacity building assistance
- HIV prevention
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
