Tribal HIV Training & Technical Assistance Center - enhanced community assessment, partnership development, and capacity building to provide Tribal HIV training and TA across the Great Plains Area. - GPTLHB is uniquely positioned to expand organizational and workforce capacity to address HIV-related health needs across its geographic service area with the proposed Tribal HIV Training & Technical Assistance Center. This program will build on successful partnerships and large-scale technical assistance deployments with the Indian Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address infectious disease outbreak response and care coordination. Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board (GPTLHB) will leverage its established Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance System, clinical and public health expertise, and service network across the Great Plains region to strengthen HIV prevention, testing, care, and treatment services for Tribal and Tribal-serving partners and entities. Severe weather, transportation limitations, poverty, and unreliable internet access further complicate access to care, particularly in frontier areas. Few communities have the infrastructure or connectivity needed to fully utilize telehealth. For many Relatives, obtaining care may require navigating multiple systems, including Tribal healthcare programs, IHS facilities, state-funded programs, and external specialists. These transitions can delay diagnosis, treatment initiation, and long-term retention in care. Further, HIV-specific expertise is often limited because of the low volume of Relatives and the ongoing challenge of recruiting specialists to rural areas. Frequent staff turnover, workforce shortages, and reliance on temporary providers can further disrupt continuity of care. The project is organized around five core objectives: 1) conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to identify HIV-related service priorities and opportunities to strengthen prevention and treatment systems; 2) utilize the assessment to enhance a regional training and technical assistance plan that aligns resources and services with identified needs; 3) provide tailored training and technical assistance to improve HIV prevention, testing, care, and treatment services; 4) establish a learning collaborative that promotes peer-to-peer learning, knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and cross-organizational collaboration among Tribal HIV stakeholders; 5) implement a comprehensive evaluation and quality improvement process to measure impact, assess outcomes, inform program improvements, and document effective practices. The primary beneficiaries of this project are Tribal governments, Tribal organizations, Urban Indian Organizations, healthcare providers, public health professionals, and organizations responsible for delivering HIV prevention, testing, care, and treatment services throughout the Great Plains region. By strengthening both individual workforce competencies and organizational systems, this project will improve access to high-quality HIV services and support better health outcomes across the service area.
