Ryan White Title III HIV Capacity Development and Planning Grants - PROJECT ABSTRACT NO/AIDS Task Force d.b.a. CrescentCare 1631 Elysian Fields Avenue New Orleans, LA 70117 Chief Executive Officer: Alice Riener Voice: 504-821-2601 Fax: 504-662-1686 Email address: alice.riener@crescentcare.org Website: www.crescentcare.org Amount requested: $150,000 Category: HIV Care Innovation Project Title: FY 2025 RWHAP Part C Capacity Development Program Summary of the proposed activity and its intended impact and its intended impact to strengthen organizational infrastructure to respond to the changing health care landscape: The project will be an initiative to develop and implement a partnership plan with strategic and non-traditional partners that focus on serving underserved and hard to reach populations in Orleans Parish to expand access to HIV care. Partnerships would be developed with organizations in areas of New Orleans where a February 2025 report by the City of New Orleans indicates that there is a high incidence of HIV in certain zip codes in Orleans Parish. That report also notes that youth are experiencing the highest incidence of new cases and there is also high incidence among individuals 20-29 and these groups will be the populations of focus for this project. CrescentCare will use its mobile unit to provide targeted early intervention services, such as HIV and STI testing and linkage activities at partner sites in the high incidence zip codes and will engage or re-engage individuals testing positive in care to provide linkage to medical and support services at CrescentCare. The partnerships will help address obstacles to care and will strengthen CrescentCare’s capacity to meet continuum of service needs for individuals with HIV by leveraging innovative partnerships in high-impact communities and to respond to the changing health care landscape. The project is not an expansion of a previously funded activity. Needs to be addressed: The program will address the sharp rise in HIV diagnoses among New Orleans residents aged 15-19. While this group accounts for less than 1% of people living with HIV, new diagnoses increased by 200% between 2022-2023, changing from 3 new cases to 9 cases. Over the course of five years, there have been 32 new cases of HIV among 15–19-year-olds. The report notes that this rise in cases among adolescents may point to emerging risk behaviors or gaps in youth-targeted prevention and education programs, calling for immediate public health action. There is also a high incidence among individuals 20-29 years old. Proposed services: CrescentCare will use its mobile unit to provide targeted early intervention services, such as HIV and STI testing and linkage activities at partner sites in the high incidence zip codes and will engage or re-engage individuals testing positive in care to provide linkage to medical and support services at CrescentCare. Population groups that will be served: The population of focus is individuals 15-19 and 20-25 in high risk zip codes in New Orleans.
