Title: Community of Color CBO Capacity Building Project
Project Period: September 1, 2005 - August 31, 2008
Project Amount Funded (FY 2005): 271,665
Project Director: Michelle Long

The Community of Color CBO Capacity Building Project provides broad-based and individualized technical assistance to at least 20 minority-based AIDS-serving organizations to build effective, sustainable organizational competency and strengthen their abilities to successfully compete for federal, other public and private funds. The targeted area is the San Francisco Eligible Metropolitan Area , which includes Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties. Communities served by the participating organizations include African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Latinos, and Native Americans.

Six major capacity and skills-building approaches and activities guide the project. 1) A minority agency needs assessment is conducted by each agency to identify key organizational capacity, skills, and organizational development needs. 2) Quarterly, half-day skills-building training programs on identified key issues are provided to approximately 40-50 staff and administrators of local CBOs. Topics include areas such as fund development, executive board development, financial and accounting systems, and client outreach. 3) At least one follow-up module is provided a month after the conclusion of each training, in order to reinforce messages and address issues and barriers. Follow up meetings also aid the project in identifying special technical assistance needs. 4) An average of 20-30 hours of one-on-one technical assistance and support are provided to approximately five organizations with identified needs each quarter, guided by a technical assistance plan. 5) Meetings are convened for executive directors monthly which provide a forum for peer mentoring, networking, and skills building. It is expected that this forum will lead to the creation of a new information association or that the participants will continue these meetings beyond the project period. 6) By the end of the project, a nationally replicable capacity-building manual for minority-serving AIDS serving organizations will be developed, based on the curricula, materials, and feedback from quarterly skills-building training programs and their follow-up support meetings.

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