Special Projects of National Significance - Cooperative Agreements - The REACH Men (Re-Engagement, Engagement, Access, Care, and Health for Men with HIV) initiative proposes to serve as the Implementation Technical Assistance Provider (ITAP) for HRSA’s Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) initiative, Strategies to Link, Engage, and Retain Men with HIV in Care. This initiative addresses persistent gaps in HIV care engagement, retention, and viral suppression among men with HIV who are out of care or face significant barriers to remaining in care. Despite the availability of effective interventions, many Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP)-funded organizations encounter challenges related to organizational readiness, workforce capacity, implementation expertise, and sustainability. The project will support eight RWHAP-funded implementation sites nationwide serving men with HIV, including those newly diagnosed, returning to care after prolonged disengagement, lack the infrastructure to support maintenance in care (i.e. transitioning from incarceration, experiencing homelessness, etc.), or facing complex barriers to sustained care engagement. In collaboration with the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau and the Evaluation Provider, the project will identify promising intervention strategies and provide implementation funding, intensive technical assistance, organizational development support, implementation coaching, continuous quality improvement, peer learning opportunities, and dissemination support using an integrated implementation approach that combines our Center’s Capacity Building Model, key facilitation components of Integrated - Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS), the HAB Implementation Framework such as Ryan White Program Moving Forward, and the DIAL (Data, Insight, Action, Learning) Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Framework with the goal to teach, implement, and refine. REACH Men will be guided by an Advisory Board of eight men with HIV from each of the service provision areas to ensure meaningful integration of lived experience among implementation strategies. Each implementation site will receive individualized support through a site-specific Implementation and Development Plan, organizational readiness assessments, fidelity monitoring, workflow redesign using de-implementation strategies, quality improvement activities, and sustainability planning. The project will also establish learning communities, facilitate cross-site collaboration, systematically collect implementation technical assistance data, and translate implementation experiences into practical toolkits, implementation guides, training resources, and replication products. The project will implement a comprehensive communications and dissemination strategy that rapidly translates implementation findings and successes into practical, user-friendly resources to support continuous learning, replication, and scale across the RWHAP. By strengthening organizational implementation capacity and supporting the adoption, adaptation, sustainment, and dissemination of evidence-informed interventions, the project will improve engagement and retention in HIV care, increase viral suppression among men with HIV, and generate scalable implementation resources that can be replicated across the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program nationwide.
