Objective 1: Reduce disparities in access to prevention and care services experienced by communities of color, women, and special needs populations.

Since Fiscal Year 1999, CDC has implemented over 70 HIV prevention projects targeted to high-risk racial and ethnic minority populations supported through the Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI). CDC receives direct MAI appropriations from Congress and additional MAI resources from the Discretionary Fund of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Funds are awarded through cooperative agreements to state and local health departments; national, regional, and local organizations; CBOs, (including faith-based organizations); and universities, to specifically target HIV prevention to communities of color which are disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. MAI has greatly enhanced CDC's ability to provide direct funding to CBOs and has allowed CDC to allocate significant resources to communities of color and high-risk populations, such as gay men of color, and to MSAs with the highest number of AIDS cases in racial and ethnic minorities. MAI funding enhances HIV program efforts in three categories: 1) technical assistance and infrastructure support; 2) increasing access to prevention and care; and 3) building strong community linkages.

In 2005, CDC implemented the “Translation/Adaptation of Science-Based Interventions for Communities of Color, Women, Substance Abusers, IDUs, and other High Risk Groups” project. The aim of this MAI project is to translate proven HIV prevention interventions identified in the CDC Procedural Guidance for Selected Strategies and Interventions for Community-Based Organizations, for culturally appropriate use in different at-risk communities. Using the Guidance, funded grantees will conduct formative research to assess the match between the intervention, the target population, and the organization. The organization will then adapt and tailor the selected intervention and pre-test materials with members of the target population. The adapted and tailored intervention or components will be pilot-tested and a logic model detailing intervention activities will be developed. CDC expects to use the results of this project in future program guidance and training for directly-funded CBOs on how to adapt and tailor interventions shown to be effective in research settings for use among at risk populations. Further, this project will enhance the way that proven interventions are used in the community by giving CBOs the tools they need to adapt effective science-based programs into practical strategies for use in at risk communities.

A second MAI project is the “Evaluation of Innovative HIV Prevention Interventions for IDUs and High Risk Minority Populations.” The purpose of this project is to identify and evaluate innovative HIV prevention interventions for injection drug users and high-risk minority populations that have been developed by CBOs with substantial input from served communities. These programs have exhibited an ability to reduce HIV risk behaviors although they have not undergone formal outcome evaluations. Through this project, CBOs will examine the effectiveness of their interventions in reducing sexual risk behaviors (including sexual abstinence), increasing HIV testing, and changing knowledge and attitudes regarding HIV risk. Those programs proving effective may then be disseminated through CDC's DEBI project.

CDC also supports intramural training for minority researchers through the Research Fellowships on HIV Prevention in Communities of Color Program and extramural training through the Minority HIV/AIDS Research Initiative (MARI). The goal of the Research Fellowship is to recruit, mentor, train, and retain investigators with expertise in conducting public health research. The project is specifically designed for minority post-doctoral fellows and aims to increase the quality and quantity of research to reduce HIV infection in communities of color most heavily impacted by HIV, and to increase the overall number of minority racial and ethnic investigators within CDC.

The goals of the MARI are to conduct HIV epidemiologic and prevention research of direct public health importance to communities of color (namely African-American and Hispanic) that have been deeply affected by the HIV epidemic, and to build HIV prevention research capacity in communities in which little research of this type has been conducted. Currently, 13 junior investigators at 12 sites are participating in MARI. This prevention research capacity building project aims to serve as a catalyst for improved HIV prevention efforts in communities of color, ultimately helping to reduce disparities in services experienced by these groups.

Go to Goal 3 Objectives 4 and 5