Special Projects of National Significance - Demonstration/Implementation Sites - The Connection Café Street Medicine program is a proposed 4-year project intended to effectively respond to the needs of people with HIV and HCV who are out of care and unsheltered in a 12-county eastern Indiana region, a region heavily impacted by the effects of substance use disorder. This application expands on a related 3-year RCORP-Implementation (2020) and year-long RCORP-Planning project (2019) awarded to the same applicant. The Fayette County Connection Café, a recovery hub established from the RCORP-Implementation grant, is a leader in eastern Indiana for recovery services and is primed for expanding its current work to serve more people with HIV in need of comprehensive medical, mental health, substance use, and social services. The Connection Café Street Medicine program will expand access to comprehensive health and wellness care by (1) adding medical staff and medical services to the current street outreach program and (2) expanding the geographic reach of the program by adding five counties to the seven currently served. Building off nearly 5 years of peer support services in the areas of substance use, mental health, and social services at our brick-and-mortar location, the Connection Café expanded its reach in 2022 to provide street outreach services. Our proposed Connection Café Street Medicine program is a natural and necessary progression of our current street outreach services. The proposed project will build on current outreach efforts by bringing low-barrier, compassionate and client-centered HIV, HCV, and other needed medical care to individuals in unsheltered spaces where they live, spend time, and congregate. With a reliance on robust community partnerships, an established history of recovery and street outreach support in the community, evidence-based implementation science and evaluation frameworks, and rigorous scientific processes, the Connection Café Street Medicine program will have a measurable positive effect on a significantly disadvantaged region in rural Indiana. Further, through sharing of program results as a demonstration site, thus enabling other organizations to replicate the intervention, the proposed project will increase the evidence base of the field.
