Towards HIV Elimination in Chicago: The City that Works Makes PrEP Work

Issues: 
PrEP and health care expansion through the Affordable Care Act offer an unprecedented opportunity to reduce US HIV infections. Achieving this goal requires a bold, strategic, and coordinated plan. To be successful, such an effort must maximize PrEP's public health potential by building upon existing efforts, establishing new partnerships, and mobilizing diverse stakeholders.

Description: 
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) convened the Chicago PrEP Working Group (CPWG), which in turn developed a five-year three-pronged plan, Towards HIV Elimination in Chicago 2015. The plan includes: 1) development of 20 Centers of PrEP Excellence to deliver expert  programming to HIV-vulnerable communities; 2) implementation of a multi-faceted marketing campaign to enhance PrEP awareness and benefits of expanded HIV testing; and 3) increasing knowledge, skills, and capacity of the HIV workforce and health practitioners on PrEP, HIV testing, and health care access. 

Lessons Learned: 
Multiple stakeholders and funders engaged in an ongoing manner through the AFC-convened CPWG. Collaborative, iterative plan development with the CPWG engendered community buy-in while creating a framework to support successful PrEP implementation. Financial resources for the Centers of Excellence, the social marketing campaign, and the provider trainings were raised collaboratively, with leadership coming from several CPWG organizational members. An initiative this large in scope requires central coordination as well as rigorous monitoring and evaluation.  

Recommendations: 
AFC and the CPWG collaborative approach to developing this comprehensive PrEP implementation plan has applications for other jurisdictions looking to scale up PrEP for HIV-vulnerable communities. The process of developing the initiative is replicable.