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FY 2003 AIDS Community Outreach Projects
NLM Funds 16 AIDS Community Information Outreach Projects in September 2003 in the 10th 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:
Standard Award Projects
AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGiS) (San Clemente, CA)
AEGiS seeks funding from NLM to assist in providing HIV/AIDS information to patients, the affected community, researchers and caregivers. AEGiS will accomplish this goal by maintaining two content assistants who will support Sr. Mary Elizabeth, the Operations Director of the AEGiS Website. Funding will also assist AEGiS in the linking of research documentation to NLM'S PubMed abstract database. AEGiS is presently serving over 735,000 users per month, and has archived over 1.1 million documents dealing with HIV/AIDS. The sources for this information are the NLM and many other government agencies, AIDS Service Organization publications, and Wire services (Associated Press, BBC, Inter Press Service, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Agence Presse France, etc.). All of this data is archived and is keyword searchable. With this new feature, many articles' footnotes will be linked so that original material is located easily on PubMed. The AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGiS) on the web: http://www.aegis.org.
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium-"Community Drum"-An Alaska Native/Rural Alaska AIDS Information Community Outreach Project (Anchorage, Alaska)
The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) is the largest tribal health care organization in the United States, formed in December 1997 to manage the statewide health services component of the Alaska Native health care system. The purpose of this project is to improve education and information access to quality HIV/AIDS information and to establish an online community for Alaskan Native HIV/AIDS patients, affected family members, and the community. This project will provide a means for Alaskan Native HIV/AIDS patients to form a continuing support network through communication with other Alaskan Natives and families coping with similar diseases. This consortium will provide an Alaskan Native informational website for use by HIV+ Alaska Natives and rural Alaskans including a message board and links to other credible HIV/AIDS website resources, create a web-based CD for use by clients without Internet access and for distribution to regional health organizations, and develop a database of area HIV/AIDS service providers and resource centers.
Center for AIDS: Hope & Remembrance Project-Project AIR 2003 (Houston, TX)
The Center for AIDS (CFA) is a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides treatment and research information to people with HIV/AIDS and service providers in Houston and Harris County. Project AIR 2003 is an expansion and updating of an outreach program previously funded by NLM in 2001, to teach clients and service providers how to obtain objective and accurate information about HIV/AIDS research and treatment options. The Project AIR 2003 will expand previously created curricula to provide updated HIV-specific treatment information as well as internet based training. The curricula will be taught to 30 groups of historically underserved patients and minority service providers. This project will also link participants to the CFA storefront information center where they can apply their skills using the CFA's computer workstations and the Internet to access current treatment information. The Center for AIDS: Hope & Remembrance Project on the web: http://www.centerforaids.org.
Critical Path AIDS Project-Community-Based Internet Connectivity: An AIDS Outreach Project (Philadelphia, PA)
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. Founded in 1989 by the late Kiyoshi Kuromiya, the project began with a print newsletter and later BBS but expanded in 1995 to become an Internet Service Provider (ISP) bringing dial-up access, email, and the World Wide Web to low income people in Philadelphia affected by the AIDS epidemic. The Critical Paths AIDS Project will maintain service on the Critical Path system, as an Internet Service Provider, providing security for all users with the installation of server based virus software. The funding of the project will help build on the current Internet services provided by Critical Path AIDS Project to the 215 and 267 area codes that serve Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery counties and the 856 area code serving Southern New Jersey. The Critical Path AIDS Project on the web: http://www.critpath.org
Family and Medical Counseling Service, Inc.-Health Information Ventures (Washington, DC)
The Family and Medical Counseling Service, Inc. (FMCS) is a nonprofit organization located in the Anacostia area of Southeast Washington, DC for the past 23 years. The Health Information Ventures is a program designed to improve the health of people living with HIV/AIDS by first teaching and incorporating computer technology into clients' everyday lives as a means to enhance provider-patient relations. Funding from the NLM will enable the FMCS to provide computers and Internet connections to clients who participate in HIV-1 training sessions, provide clients with email access to Adherence and Medical staff members to ask questions regarding health issues, and educate the community about HIV/AIDS information through Internet resources to help clients understand their conditions and treatments. The Family and Medical Counseling Service, Inc. on the web: http://www.fmcsinc.org.
Holyoke Health Center, Inc.-Cultural Access to HIV/AIDS Resources (Holyoke, MA)
Through collaboration with the ACCESS Holyoke/Nueva Esperanza, Valley Opportunity Council (VOC), Holyoke Consumer Health Library, Baystate Medical Center and Springfield Southwest Community Health Center, the Cultural Access to HIV/AIDS Resources project will improve access to quality HIV/AIDS information in the Holyoke area of Massachusetts. Coordinated under the umbrella of the Holyoke Health Center's Center for Healthy Holyoke, this HIV/AIDS information access project will accomplish the following goals: 1) offer support for HIV/AIDS patients through the use of Spanish-language, Latino-oriented Internet resources linked through the Holyoke Health Center web site to the Holyoke Consumer Health Library, 2) use a set of community technology access points to train and educate staff and consumers about HIV/AIDS, allowing individual access to Internet resources and establishing a community access point at Holyoke Health Center, and 3) create an integrated system of support for HIV/AIDS self-management, health education and information access, and support for informed consumer participation. The Holyoke Health Center, Inc. on the web: http://www.hhcinc.org.
Public Health - Seattle & King County-HIV/AIDS Information Outreach: Working with Communities at Risk of Acquisition and Transmission of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Seattle, WA)
The HIV/AIDS Program of Public Health-Seattle & King County will collaborate with community-based organizations to improve access to HIV/AIDS related information. This project will: 1) Provide state-of-the- art computer equipment, software and technical assistance to CBOs that serve the HIV/AIDS community, 2) Provide training and information skills development to the staff of CBOs that target IDUs and GLBT persons, 3) Utilize the HIV/AIDS website to disseminate important public health information to community organizations involved in HIV prevention and care, and 4) Continue dissemination of accurate up-to-date information in a variety of formats to Public Health staff, CBOs and others affected by HIV/AIDS in King County through the HIV/AIDS Resource Center & Library and the HIV/AIDS Program home page. Public Health- Seattle & King County on the web: http://www.metrokc.gov/healthRegents of the University of New Mexico-New Mexico AIDS InfoNet (Albuquerque, NM)
The New Mexico AIDS InfoNet is an on-line HIV/AIDS information resource, providing fact sheets on treatment and related information in non-technical language, in both English and Spanish. In addition, the web site includes a hyperlinked, categorized listing of more than 500 HIV/AIDS web site addresses to facilitate individual research. Although originally designed to serve the HIV community in New Mexico, the InfoNet has grown into a national and international resource. Also, the InfoNet materials receive nearly 300,000 "page views" each month, including significant visits from outside the United States. Funding from NLM will support the 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. This project will also offer presentations on HIV/AIDS treatment topics within New Mexico and at selected regional or national conferences. The New Mexico AIDS InfoNet on the web: http://www.aidsinfonet.org/
Self Reliance Foundation-Conociendo el SIDA (Understanding AIDS): A Public Education Campaign Targeting Latino Adults (Washington, DC)
For the past 20 years, the Self Reliance Foundation (SRF), a nonprofit organization, has produced and syndicated educational and informational programming to address the special needs of America's Latino community. The Conociendo el SIDA (Understanding AIDS) project will develop new mass media and database resources to provide Spanish- language HIV/AIDS related health information to adult Latino audiences. The goals of this initiative are to: 1) produce nationally syndicated informational radio capsules on HIV/AIDS information, 2) produce national syndicated newspaper columns on HIV/AIDS information, 3) update a national database of community organizations providing culturally competent HIV/AIDS information and services to Latinos, and 4) provide a national toll-free information and referral service for callers who have questions on HIV/AIDS or who need referrals to community service providers. The Self Reliance Foundation on the web: http://www.accesohispano.org.
Express Award Projects:
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC)-Sexual Assault HIV Information Project (Cambridge, MA)
The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) is a community-based organization that provides free services to survivors of rape and sexual assault, as well as their friends and family regardless of age, sex, race, disability, income, ethnicity, class, religion or sexual orientation. BARCC is committed to providing culturally sensitive, age appropriate services to rape survivors who have the least access to counseling, medical care, and legal assistance. The goal of the Sexual Assault HIV Information Project is to educate survivors of sexual assault and their medical providers by increasing access to quality HIV/AIDS information about HIV transmission, testing and prophylaxis following a sexual assault. The BARCC will develop and distribute the informational brochure Sexual Violence and HIV, which will be written in 3 languages (English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole). BARCC will also develop the Sexual Violence and HIV web page as a part of the existing BARCC website, which survivors and their families may access in order to obtain health information relating to HIV/AIDS following a sexual assault. The Boston Area Crisis Center (BARCC) on the web: http://www.barcc.org.
Carl Vogel Center-Facilitating Access to HIV/AIDS Health Information (Washington, DC)
Through the Facilitating Access to HIV/AIDS Health Information project, the Carl Vogel Center will design and implement a training and skills development program for clients and staff enabling them to access on-line resources for up-to-date HIV/AIDS health information. Clients will use this specialized training to carry out a thorough peer education effort, staffing the Treatment Resource Library and Computer Lab, which are maintained by the center. The trained clients and staff will assist other clients and members of the affected community in Washington, DC who visit the Treatment Resources Library and Computer Lab. The Carl Vogel Center on the web: http://www.carlvogelcenter.com
Columbus AIDS Task Force-Central Ohio's HIV/AIDS Resource Library (Columbus, OH)
The Resource Library at the Columbus AIDS Task Force (CATF) currently serves a varied patron group of HIV+ clients and their loved ones, health care providers, researchers, and the general public. CATF is a community-based organization serving a diverse community of more than 1000 HIV+ clients in central Ohio. Through this project, CATF will improve access to HIV/AIDS information in central Ohio through computer literacy and document access. NLM's funding will enable CATF to improve computer literacy skills among community members with limited economic resources through computer training courses, improve document access specifically to HIV serials, and add several bibliographies to the CATF website for minority communities. These bibliographies will be developed in the library, and will specifically target the African-American, Somali-American, and elderly consumers. The Columbus AIDS Task Force on the web: http://www.catf.net
Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso-Helen Gillette Library Resource Expansion Program (El Paso, TX)
The Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso (PPCEP), through a collaborative effort with the Metropolitan Community Church of El Paso and Las Americas, seeks funding from the NLM to expand the Desert Rainbow Center's (DRC) Helen Gillette Library and Resource Center. The goals of the Helen Gillette Library Resource Expansion Program include: 1) increasing the availability and accessibility of Spanish language resources for individuals infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, 2) enhancing the current DRC web page to include bilingual resource tools that are easily accessible and maneuverable including national, state, and local links, and 3) providing HIV/AIDS information retrieval training sessions for clients, caregivers, family members affected by HIV/AIDS, healthcare professionals, and community members on how to navigate the website and access the Helen Gillette Library and Resource Center. The Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso on the web: http://www.ppcep.org.
Public Health-Seattle & King County-Teen Advisory Board HIV/AIDS Internet Outreach Project (Seattle, WA)
Public Health-Seattle & King County is a department within King County Government, with a mission to achieve and sustain healthy people and healthy communities throughout King County by providing public health services that promote health and prevent disease. Historically, Public Health - Seattle & King County has received funding from The NLM's AIDS Community Information Outreach program to provide technical support to AIDS Service Organizations within Seattle & King County. They are now seeking funding from the NLM in order to create HIV/AIDS web pages designed for and by local youth serving on Public Health - Seattle & King County's Teen Advisory Board. This project utilizes a peer education model, improving access to HIV/AIDS information in two ways: 1) the creation of culturally-specific web pages featuring HIV/AIDS prevention information and 2) training a group of local youth to deliver HIV/AIDS prevention information to their communities. Public Health - Seattle & King County on the web: http://www.metrokc.gov/health.
Sisterlove, Inc.-Sister's Wisdom, Sister's Lives: Information and Resources for Women of African Descent Affected by HIV/AIDS (Atlanta, GA)
Founded in 1989, Sisterlove, Inc. has been dedicated specifically to the education, prevention and support needs of women at risk and those living with HIV/AIDS. Through this project, Sisterlove, Inc. intends to develop an internet portal to provide women at greatest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and those providing them services and support access to information and resources that are culturally responsive and reflective of the experiences, concerns and needs of women of African descent who are living and/or affected by HIV/AIDS. Sisterlove, Inc. will also develop materials to specifically address the informational and educational needs of women of African descent who are living and/or affected by HIV/AIDS that are not readily available online. These materials will be available on the developed Internet portal. The Sisterlove, Inc. on the web: http://www.sisterlove.org.
YWCA of Northwest Louisiana-AIDS Minority Community Outreach Program-Internet Public Access Project (Shreveport, LA)
The YWCA of Northwest Louisiana has been in existence for 80 years, serving a ten-parish area in the northwest corner of Louisiana. The geographical jurisdiction includes both urban and rural populations where the majority of clients are minority women and youth. Funding from NLM will enable the YWCA to install 4 computer workstations in the Internet Public Access Computer Lab located in the Allendale area of Shreveport. This computer lab will give individuals the opportunity to retrieve HIV/AIDS medical related information and participate in on-line support services. Through a collaboration with the Health Sciences Library at the Louisiana Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, the YWCA will provide Internet search training for staff and volunteers, who will be available to provide technical assistance to the clients and general public who visit the Internet Public Access Computer Lab. The YWCA of Northwest Louisiana on the web: http://ywcanwla.org.
Last updated: 06 October 2003
First published: 06 October 2003
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed