Oral

Community-based organizations (CBOs), particularly minority-based CBOs, are critical in the delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention programs and services. Approximately 1,500 CBOs have been funded by the CDC to provide more than 3,000 HIV prevention programs in the U.S. and its territories. Enhancing CBOs’ capacity to address HIV/AIDS within communities hardest hit by the epidemic has become a central focus of current HIV prevention activities. The focus of this session is to examine a national model for capacity building in CBOs. The first presentation describes the development of the Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership (Institute) (funded by the CDC through a cooperative agreement with the Association of Schools of Public Health) and its effectiveness in enhancing CBO capacity. The second presentation reports the use of and confidence in using interventions included in the Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) project by minority-based CBOs. The third presentation examines the frequency with which CBOs employ public health approaches to HIV prevention and their self-efficacy in doing so. The fourth presentation focuses on the effectiveness of site visits in evaluating enhancement of CBO capacity. The final presentation reports the results of a web-based survey determining the capacity-building needs of health department personnel engaged in HIV prevention, and how a similar national model could address those needs.

Session Objectives: Participants will be able to: 1. Describe national efforts aimed at improving the capacity of community based organizations that provide HIV related services. 2. Describe the unique capacity enhancement needs of community organizations that provide services primarily to individuals from ethnic minority communities. 3. Describe mechanisms that have proven effective for sustaining capacity building efforts in HIV service providing community organizations.