Tuesday, April 23, 2024
4/23/2024
The Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, an agency that rebranded in 2018 and is now doing business as the San Francisco Community Health Center (SFCHC) - requests funding through the CDC’s FY 2022 Comprehensive High-Impact HIV Prevention Programs for Young Men of Color Who Have Sex with Men and Young Transgender Persons of Color (PS22-2203) to implement San Francisco Bay Area Transgender Alliance for Health Resources (STAHR), an innovative, client-driven initiative designed to significantly reduce new cases of HIV infection among young transgender persons of color (YTPC) living in the highly impacted San Francisco (SF) Bay Area, including both San Francisco and Alameda County. STAHR will create a new context for involving YTPC in integrated HIV, STI, and HCV testing, treatment, and services by collaborating with consumers to develop and implement tailored community engagement strategies that directly speak to the specific cultural, language, and generational orientations of our region’s diverse transgender (trans) populations. STAHR will provide multiple points of entry into HIV testing and services, including through evening, weekend, and late night pop-up testing in areas where trans people congregate, and through the use of direct client service staff who are exclusively transgender people. Through a partnership with the highly respected California Prostitutes Education Project (CAL-PEP) in Oakland - an agency with extensive experience in reaching and providing HIV testing and prevention services to young trans people of color - STAHR will also significantly expand transgender outreach and service capacity in the East Bay, maintaining two project safe spaces - one at SHCHC and one at CAL-PEP - while expanding utilization of SFCHC’s transgender FQHC clinic in San Francisco as a physical hub for facilitating access to testing, treatment, primary care, behavioral health, and supportive services. The program will also partner with Huckl eberry Youth Services (Huckleberry), a highly respected SF youth agency serving many young transgender people of color, to provide outreach services and consumer input to the program. The overarching purpose of the STAHR program is to reduce and prevent new cases of HIV transmission among young trans people of color (YTPC) and their partners in San Francisco and Alameda Counties in accordance with both the HIV National Strategic Plan and the CDC’s High-Impact, Status-Neutral HIV Prevention approach. The project will accomplish this goal through a collaborative, trans-led program that: a) conducts a consumer-driven, community asset, resources, and needs assessment process during the program’s initial 6-month planning phase; b) launches a trans-Bay community outreach and engagement campaign led by and focused on YTPC; c) increases utilization of both stand-alone and integrated HIV/STI counseling and testing services by high-risk YTPC populations; d) effectively links both newly identified and previously identified YTPC with HIV to Partner Services and to high-quality, in-house medical care, including same-day ART; e) refers and links HIV-negative YTPC to high-quality, in-house PrEP and PEP services, including same-day PrEP starter packs; f) provides ongoing treatment retention and medication adherence services to support long-term HIV and PrEP treatment engagement; g) provides comprehensive access to condoms and safe sex kits; h) maintains two project safe spaces that addresses at least two key social determinants of health; and i) offers ongoing HIV health education, risk reduction, medication adherence services, and linkage to essential prevention and supportive services. The STAHR program will work to overcome resistance and stigma related to HIV / STI testing and treatment and PrEP and PEP use, with the goal of expanding utilization of HIV and STI testing across among YTPC in San Francisco and Alameda Counties.
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).
