Bridging cultural and language boundaries to improve knowledge, access to services, and healthy behaviors among Latinos at risk for HIV infection: Lessons from a community-academic partnership

Background: The Columbus AIDS Task Force (CATF), a community-based organization that provides comprehensive care services, educational programs and HIV testing to underserved populations in central Ohio, launched its Latino Outreach Program in 2006 to address the needs of the growing Latino population, comprised of many recent immigrants whose primary language is Spanish. As part of this initiative, CATF and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, with funding support from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program, formed a community-academic partnership to evaluate the Latino Outreach Program. Methods: Using a hands-on, participatory approach, the community and academic partners designed the evaluation plan using a conceptual framework of program activities and intended outcomes. Based on this framework, the partners created measures for evaluating program implementation and effectiveness, and built a data management and reporting system using Epi Info software. Results: While language barriers, cultural norms, and the presence of misinformation and stigma surrounding HIV provide challenges to the implementation and evaluation of the Latino Outreach Program, these challenges have been met through culturally sensitive, confidential programming and creative, adaptive methods for tracking program success. After two years of collaboration, CATF has developed its in-house capacity to conduct evaluations, increasing its ability to make evidence-based decisions about program strategies. Conclusions: The synergy stemming from partnerships between community organizations and academic institutions aids in the construction of programs that bridge cultural divides in a respectful, client-centered manner while still allowing for thorough data collection that feeds into future evidence-based program improvements.