Act Against AIDS: Communications and technical assistance services for multi-sectoral partnerships

Challenge

Despite the progress public health campaigns have made in the fight against HIV and AIDS, efforts have been less successful for some groups, including African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and men who have sex with men. Compared to Whites, the rate of new infections is higher among African Americans and Hispanics.

Men who have sex with men accounted for 70% of all new infections in 2014. In addition to dealing with the illness, people with HIV still face the added burden of stigma and discrimination. One proven approach to preventing HIV in at-risk communities is through public-private partnerships.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked Westat to assist its Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention’s (DHAP’s) National Partnerships Team to

Identify, engage, and mobilize public and private sector partners in HIV/AIDS prevention, including national campaigns and awareness days
Provide technical assistance and training to partners

Solution

Westat is focusing on the following tasks:
- Develop an online partner portal that will help partners coordinate their efforts more effectively
- Provide training and technical assistance to partners to improve their capacity to HIV prevention work
- Transform groups and individuals that already have partnership relationships with the National Partnership Team into “HIV Champions” to improve sustainability of partnerships
- Create tools to evaluate the efforts and overall effectiveness of partnerships

The Results

Westat continues to work closely with DHAP’s National Partnership Team to foster partnerships that help educate the nation, further reduce the rate of new HIV infections, combat stigma and discrimination, and promote access to care for people living with HIV.
Several of our work included the following:
- Provided technical assistance and communications expertise to CDC partners to support their HIV prevention initiatives
- Developed tools to support partner outreach
- Implemented in-person engagement events in cities across the country, bringing together hundreds of partner organizations and individuals

Act Against AIDS

Partnering and Communicating Together to Act Against AIDS