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FY 2001 AIDS Community Outreach Projects

NLM Funds 16 AIDS Information Community Outreach Projects in September 2001 in the Eighth Round of the Program

NLM has continued its HIV/AIDS- related outreach efforts to community-based organizations, patient advocacy groups, faith- based organizations, departments of health, and libraries. This program provides support to design local programs for improving information access for AIDS patients and the affected community as well as their caregivers. Emphasis is on providing information or access in a way meaningful to the target community. Projects must involve one or more of the following information access categories: information retrieval, skills development, Internet access, resource development, and document access.

Awards were made for the following projects:

Project 2000 (Washington, D.C.) PROJECT 2000 and Hine Junior High School will team together to offer HIV/AIDS training to select staff and students who will then serve as trainers for Hine students and parents, and students and parents in the PROJECT 2000 community. Participants will learn how to search the web for information on HIV/AIDS, using the website developed with previous NLM funding. A computer lab in PROJECT 2000 House (set up during the previous NLM project), a study center located in the Woodland Terrace Housing Project in Ward 8 in southeast Washington, DC will serve to further community exposure to HIV/AIDS awareness. This site will be open to parents and community members on designated week nights and weekends during the course of the proposal. Students themselves will be responsible for the development and maintenance of the website. Project 2000 on the web: http://www.project2000inc.org

The AIDS Library (Philadelphia, PA) Building on the previous programs funded by NLM the AIDS Library will expand its services. The earlier funding from NLM enabled the AIDS Library to purchase six computers, develop four tutorials on accessing information and develop specialized web pages. The web pages included a low-literacy treatment page with important information about treatment options and services as well as links to related sites and a Living with HIV page with practical information for individuals who are managing their disease. This new project will target inner city people living with HIV, especially people of color-the most impacted group in Philadelphia. Through presentations, training, tutorials, and culturally sensitive low literacy material, the project will facilitate increased access and information utilization that allows people with HIV to live healthier and more productive lives. The AIDS Library on the web: http://www.aidslibrary.org

Public Health Seattle and King County HIV/AIDS Program (Seattle, WA) The HIV/AIDS Program of Public Health-Seattle and King County (PHSKC) will work with community- based organizations in King County to improve access to HIV/AIDS related information for patients, affected communities and their caregivers. They will partner with Management Information Services of Public Health-Seattle and King County and the CBOs to provide computer technical assistance to CBOs in King County that serve communities of color and provide training and information skills development to people of color and staff of CBOs in King County. The HIV/AIDS Program of Public Health-Seattle and King County on the web: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/

New Mexico AIDS InfoNet (Albuquerque, NM) The New Mexico AIDS InfoNet is an online HIV/AIDS information resource, providing Fact Sheets on treatment and related information in non- technical language, in English and Spanish. In addition, the web site includes a categorized listing of more than 500 HIV/AIDS web site addresses. The InfoNet materials receive over 100,00 page views each month. Over 45% of these visits are from outside the United States. This funding will support ongoing maintenance of the existing Fact Sheet collection and development of selected additional topics. In collaboration with the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Library, the InfoNet web site will be publicized to audiences of public librarians and medical librarians, and the project will provide access to HIV/Aids journal articles for New Mexicans living with HIV and their health care providers. The Project will also offer training in the use of the Internet and of the InfoNet web site to HIV/AIDS case managers and clients within New Mexico and at selected national AIDS conferences. New Mexico AIDS InfoNet on the web: http://www.aidsinfonet.org/

One Day At a Time, Positive Effects Outreach Ministry and The AIDS Library (Philadelphia, PA) Positive Effect Outreach Ministry (PEOM), and One Day At a Time (ODAAT) each have storefront outreach programs in heavily impacted Philadelphia Neighborhoods. These multipurpose storefront sites make a range of HIV services available to neighborhoods that include people with AIDS/HIV and many extremely at risk for HIV, included people already infected who are unaware of their status. Services on site included counseling and testing, primary care clinics, case management, housing assistance and referrals. Through this project PEOM and ODAAT will join with the AIDS Library to increase access to information for people with HIV/AIDS, and AIDS service staff by installing computers in two storefront sites in the Kensington and Northeast Philadelphia sections of the city. These computers will form the core of mini-computer centers and AIDS Library branches to enable those using the storefront to find up to date, comprehensive, and literacy appropriate information through the Internet and the World Wide Web. The AIDS Library will provide guidance and training for the above groups as well as developing a special web site for users to link to, and will have staff available to assist ODAAT and PEOM staff as they guide consumers through the wealth of information available on the World Wide Web.

AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS) This funding will support one staff person who will be a content assistant to Sr. Mary Elizabeth, Operations Director of the AEGiS Website. This will assist in archiving of the constantly growing HIV/AIDS news and research body of knowledge. In addition, it will assist AEGiS in the linking of research documentation to NLM's PubMed abstract database. This will enable patients and researchers of HIV/AIDS to get to original source material very quickly. AEGiS is presently serving over 500,000 user sessions per month. It has archived over 700,000 documents dealing with HIV/AIDS. The sources for this information are the National Library of Medicine and many other government agencies, and AIDS service organization publications, and Wire services. All of this data is archived and is word searchable. Now with this new feature many articles' footnotes will be linked so that original material is located easily on PubMed. AEGIS on the web: http://www.aegis.org

Welch Medical Library, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) The Johns Hopkins Welch Library and Maternity Center East (MCE), a community-based primary care clinic serving poor, uninsured women of East Baltimore, will supplement and enhance its existing HIV/AIDS screening and counseling services by purchasing computers and offering current, accurate information on local and relevant national AIDS/HIV resources in a web-based format enhanced by audio- recordings of the healthcare providers and the women served by the clinic. The goal of the project is to provide accurate, current information, in a way that enhances confidence in the resources and overcomes barriers to understanding the textual presentation of the information. Clinicians of MCE will record descriptions of the resources. The women who use the resources will be invited to describe their experience using the resources, and recordings of both the testimonials and clinician's descriptions will be clustered on the wed page near the textual description of the resource. Both health professionals of the clinic and the women served by the clinic will be trained in basic computer skills enabling them to use the web page and audio recordings. The effect of audio on resource utilization will be tested by randomly assigning clients into two groups: those who use the web page of resources and those who use a web page of resources enhanced with audio. Welch Medical Library on the web: http://www.welch.jhu.edu/

Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center (Albany GA) Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center (SOWEFA-AHEC) will assess and significantly expand HIV/AIDS resource awareness specific to the residents of the 38 counties of southwest Georgia. After a baseline survey undertaken by meeting with representatives of the affected community (defined in this proposal as all individuals who are directly affected by the AIDS pandemic, particularly those who are infected with the disease or are the primary caregiver for somebody who is infected with the disease), the project will develop and market a web site, conduct hands-on training at eight southwest Georgia population centers, and the distribute printed materials. They will focus on how and where to find reliable information (both print and electronic) on all facets of the AIDS pandemic including but not limited to current trends in treatment, medication, financial resources, clinical trials, legal aid, medical research, and transmission statistics; and what and where AIDS resources are available in southwest Georgia. Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center on the web: http://www.sowega-ahec.org/

Nebraska AIDS Project, INC. (Omaha, NE) Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP) will improve access to electronic HIV/AIDS information resources for the clients, staff, volunteers, and the community-at-large in metro- Omaha by establishing a computer lab networked with high-speed Internet access. NAP will develop state-of-the art information resources specifically targeting metro-Omaha, Nebraska, and Southwest Iowa residents with rich, multimedia educational web content and links to authoritative HIV/AIDS websites. NAP will improve the ability of people with HIV/AIDS and caregivers to access state-of-the- art information resources hosted on or linked to the NAP website by providing Computer Clinics aimed at developing basic computer skills, exploring web applications and multimedia content, and troubleshooting technical issues. The Nebraska AIDS Project on the web: http://www.nap.org/home.html

Critical Path AIDS Project (Philadelphia, PA) Since its founding in 1989 by the late Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Critical Path AIDS Project has developed a complementary and diverse suite of information services, designed by a person with AIDS for persons with AIDS and their caregivers, available nowhere else in the United States. The project began with a print newsletter and later BBS but expanded in 1995 to become an Internet Service Provider (ISP), bring dial-up access, email and the World Wide to low income people in Philadelphia affected by the ADSI epidemic. Critical Path AIDS Project request funding to provide people living with HIV?AIDS access to the rich information resources on the Internet. The Critical Path AIDS Project will maintain service on the Critical Path system as an Internet Service Provider; upgrade our electronic mailing list software to allow more sophisticated uses of email lists at all levels of Internet literacy; and redesign the Critical Path Web by Critical Path AIDS Project to the 215,267, and 445 area codes that serve Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery counties. Critical Path AIDS Project on the web: http://www.critpath.org/

AIDS Research Consortium of Houston DBA The Center for AIDS: Hope and Remembrance Project (Houston, TX) The CFA is a nonprofit, community- based organization that provides treatment and research information to person with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers. The CFA's information center houses the largest collection of HIV/AIDS-specific literature in this part of the country. The objectives of this project include: developing three training curricula and pilot test and refine them; obtain equipment for the training; and conduct training sessions to assist clients and providers in developing their skills. Center for AIDS on the web: http://www.centerforaids.org/

Germantown Settlement and the AIDS Library (Philadelphia, PA) The project will create a Community Access Computer Center and HIV Resource Center (CCRC) in the Germantown Philadelphia offices of WISDOM/Germantown Settlement. This is a community-based organization that provides services to people with HIV. Using the experience developed in the current programs of the AIDS Library previously funded by NLM, this project will take the resources of the AIDS Library into the community by establishing a satellite location in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Staff and community representatives will be training the use of computes as well as in the use of the Internet to gather HIV-related health information. The AIDS Library's collections will be made available by training local staff and referring more complicated questions to the Library. This project will specifically target low-income women of color living with HIV and women with a history of drug and alcohol abuse that puts them at high risk for HIV infection. The Germantown settlement is an established community center and the location of the CCRC there will provide a supportive environment for information access.

Center for Human Development (Pleasant Hill, CA) The Empowerment Program, a service of the Center for Human Development, submits this request for quotation for the creation of an Empowerment Internet Cafe. The proposed project of the Empowerment Program will provide Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender and Questioning Youth (LGBTQ) in Contra Costa County, CA, access to current and reliable on- line education on the social, emotional, and medical issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. It will also give them access to computers in an accepting atmosphere. This project will first offer online training to peer educators and then, through them, expand the training to other LGBTQ youth. As the training grows, so will the ability of the target population to be educated about HIV/AIDS. A web-site for the project will also be developed so youth who utilize the Empowerment Program's drop-in services and youth who have access to a computer elsewhere can get current information that will be posted by trained peer-editors and professional staff. The goal of the Empowerment Cafe is to reduce the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases among youth in Contra Costa Country. Center for Human Development on the web: http://www.chd-prevention.org/empowerment/index.htm

Stonewall Alliance Center (Chico, CA) This project will provide greater access to information regarding HIV/AIDS and other men's health issues to a rural area of northern California. This audience in rural areas presents unique challenges to HIV prevention workers and care providers. The Momentum Education Network will expand the ability of both the providers as well as the affected population to access needed information. The project includes (1) provider Internet access to online health databases; (2) a portal page for linking online databases to the Stonewall Alliance Center web page; (3) development of a database of area HIV service providers; (4) documents distribution and reference to the public through the Stonewall Alliance Center's Harlen Adams Memorial Library; and (5) promotion of these services and materials to the public. Stonewall Alliance Center on the web: http://www.stonewallchico.org/

Safe Haven Outreach Ministry, Inc. (Washington, DC) This organization provides a residential substance abuse treatment program and drop in center targeted to homeless and recently incarcerated men and women who have multiple diagnoses, e.g., mental illness, a history of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. These locations afford SHOM the opportunity to provide extensive training in the use of and access to the NLM's MedlinePlus and other medical information resource via the Internet. The training program will train clients who participate in the residential program and who will, in turn, serve as peer trainers and system monitors for other residential clients and those visiting the drop in center. Safe Haven Outreach Ministry on the web: http://members.aol.com/cdgrandi/shom/index.htm

Metro TeenAIDS (Washington, DC) This organization works to prevent HIV among youth and is the leader in the Washington, DC region in bringing the message of HIV/AIDS prevention to the Youth Centers. Through existing "Internet Cafes" located at MTA's three Youth Centers, we will establish an electronic resource program for youth that is both youth oriented and informative. MTA will establish a training program designed to equip the staff and peer educators with knowledge about using the Internet and accessing HIV/AIDS related information. The staff and peer educators will, in turn, train the target audience (youth ages 13- 24) and enable them to be confident and competent in utilizing the Internet to research HIV/AIDS related information. Additionally, MTA will distribute flyers and palm cards encouraging youth to use their facilities to access Internet databases on HIV/AIDS information. Metro TeenAIDS on the web: http://www.metroteenaids.org/

Last updated: 28 December 2004
First published: 04 October 2001
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed