Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement PS24-0026: Implementation of Community Health Worker-Mediated Services for Re-Engagement to Care and Outreach for Persons with HIV in Rural Communities (REACH: Rural Re-Engagement and Care using CHWs for Persons with HIV)

This Notice of Funding Opportunity announcement is available at www.grants.gov. To view the entire announcement, go to www.grants.gov and click on the “Search Grants” tab. Then select the “Posted” Opportunity Status and enter the word “PS24-0026” in the Keyword(s) field, then click “Search”. To learn more about the CDC application process, visit grants.gov How to Apply for Grants webpage.

PS24-0026 NOFO [PDF – 888 KB]
PS24-0026 Logic Model [PDF – 144 KB]

Executive Summary

Persons with HIV (PWH) living in rural communities, where the population is <50,000 persons, may have limited access to HIV care providers and may need to travel long distances to visit an experienced HIV care provider. Additionally, Black and Hispanic/Latino PWH may experience structural barriers such as racism and lack of access to language translation services that may make it challenging to adhere to routine HIV care and treatment services. These barriers can be exacerbated in rural communities. In this demonstration project, recipients will be funded to collaborate with HIV care providers to identify PWH in rural communities not in care or not virally suppressed and to implement a Community Health Worker (CHW)-mediated model of re-engagement to care and outreach services for PWH in rural communities. Recipients will employ and train CHWs to facilitate re-engagement of PWH who are not in care and outreach to those who are not virally suppressed to provide services that may include anti-retroviral treatment (ART) delivery, sample collection for standard HIV laboratory testing, transfer of self-collected specimens, as well as provide transportation services, arranging and scheduling telehealth visits and/or in person visits with an HIV medical provider and other providers (mental health, primary care) and offer evidence-based medication adherence support.

Purpose

This NOFO will fund recipients to work with HIV care providers to develop a CHW-mediated approach to re-engagement to care and outreach services for PWH in rural communities. CHWs will provide services that may include, but are not limited to, ART delivery, sample collection for standard HIV laboratory testing, transfer of self-collected specimens, transportation services, arranging and scheduling telehealth visits with the HIV medical providers and with other providers (mental health, primary care) and offering evidence-based medication adherence support.