Howard Brown Health Center provides technical assistance to 20-24 minority-serving organizations each year throughout the greater Chicago area. Through its partnership with the Executive Services Corps of Chicago (ESC), the project reaches organizations serving primarily African American and Latino communities.

An application process serves as the initial assessment of current organizational capacity, and selected participants are matched with a project team member to further define specific technical assistance and capacity development needs. The in-depth assessments are used to develop a workplan with each organization. ESC provides administrative technical assistance consulting in areas such as strategic planning, board development, and the audit process, while Howard Brown Health Center provides programmatic assistance in areas such as the design of outreach activities, development of HIV prevention messages in communities of color, and design and implementation of HIV counseling, testing, and referral programs. Regular on-site technical assistance sessions are scheduled on a weekly basis, fostering a mentoring relationship, and progress is monitored through monthly telephone check-ins. Training sessions and workshops are held throughout the year on common areas identified through the assessment process. Organizations are also linked with other local agencies capable of providing further assistance, such as the Chicago Department of Health, Cook County Department of Health, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Chicago Recovery Alliance, CarePoint, and NPO Assist. Evaluation activities include reassessing progress toward workplan objectives at the end of each consultation, as well as pre-test/post-test instruments to measure impact through staff perceptions of change in knowledge, attitudes, practices, and use of other social services among at-risk and HIV positive clients.

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