Thursday, March 13, 2025
3/13/2025
Valley AIDS Council(VAC) is applying to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Comprehensive High-Impact HIV Prevention Programs for Community-Based Organizations (CDC-RFA-PS 21-2102) for $470,000 for each year of the five year performance period. VAC and the Rio Grande Valley community at large, support the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America(EHE). With the implementation of this initiative, we intend to leverage existing and new structures to tackle social determinants of health that create disparities for groups most vulnerable to acquiring HIV in the Rio Grande Valley: Latinx Men who have Sex with Men. In order to achieve the goals of the EHE, this will require a fundamental paradigm shift on how we provide services to people who are HIV negative and people living with HIV; one that supports a Status Neutral Approach to providing care. This holistic approach, one that views people first rather than disease first, will be key to assisting VAC and the Rio Grande Valley to diagnose, treat, prevent, and respond to the HIV epidemic in the borderland. Two essential components of a Comprehensive HIV Core Prevention Program and Operational Program will be key for VAC to be able to engage stakeholders and consumers. VAC has begun to lay the groundwork to support a Status Neutral Approach which has mostly been in theory. VAC’s intent is to apply this approach in a meaningful, concrete way that supports addressing health disparities and inequities that affect people of color. VAC’s intent is to achieve this by providing systematic access to healthcare and essential support services through use of Status Neutral informed staff, linking and retaining individuals to biomedical interventions, and engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders to increase uptake in testing. Through the implementation of this initiative, VAC will increase capacity to be able to enhance and create new structures that when added as parts of a whole, will have a synergistic effect that will help our region contribute to the overall EHE. Specifically, as part of creating a high impact and focused approach to prevention, VAC intends to achieve the following outcomes through client focused strategies and interventions: • Diagnose o Increase persons who are aware of their HIV status o Increased receipt of integrated screenings • Treat o Increased receipt of HIV medical care and ART among persons newly diagnosed/previously diagnosed with HIV o Increased access to Partner Services • Prevent o Increased access to PrEP o Increased availability of condoms To achieve the EHE, VAC will continue efforts to reach out to community partners who are not typically viewed as key in reducing new HIV transmissions. VAC has strived to establish and nurture community partnerships by obtaining stakeholder buy in from consumers as well as our prevention and care services partners. As a Community Based Organization(CBO), VAC has demonstrated success in identifying and testing individuals at highest risk and linking newly diagnosed HIV positive individuals into medical care. This collaborative struggle will require collaborative solutions to achieve the goals of the EHE.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).