Crossing the border from academics to community-based public health: Building capacity for community based organizations that serve African American populations

Background: The CDC/ASPH Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership (“Institute”), funded by the CDC and the Association of Schools of Public Health, is a capacity-building program for HIV prevention program managers working in minority-based community based organizations (CBOs) across the U.S. The Institute has a dual-track curriculum that focuses on building capacity in public health and strategic planning and management. Public health activities include planning, implementation, and evaluation of HIV prevention programs.

Methods: Participants in the Institute completed surveys measuring the frequency with which they conducted public health activities in their CBOs and their self-efficacy in conducting those activities at three points in time (the pre-Institute, post-Institute, and six-months post-Institute). For the purpose of this investigation, survey data were extracted for Institute participants from 2002-2005 who worked at CBOs primarily serving African American populations (n=99). Repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to test whether differences existed between both frequency of conducting public health activities and self-efficacy in conducting those activities among Institute participants at three points in time.

Results: Results indicated that Institute participants reported significant changes in both the frequency with which they conducted public health activities and their self-efficacy in conducting public health activities regarding HIV prevention.

Conclusions: Intensive programs like the Institute can play a vital role in increasing the capacity of HIV prevention program managers in the U.S. to provide HIV prevention programs and services for African American populations. Innovative models that cross the border between academia and community health need to continue to be developed.