Lessons Learned Building The Capacity of African American Organizations
1. Make It Work!
Building the Capacity of CBOs & HDs
Implementing Interventions in African
American Communities
Camille A. Abrahams, M.S.
African American Capacity Building Assistance Initiative
a program of the Harm Reduction Coalition
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2. Harm Reduction Coalition
Founded in 1994 to work with individuals and communities at
risk for HIV infection due to drug use and high-risk sexual
behaviors.
Committed to reducing drug-related harm by initiating and
promoting local, regional and national harm reduction education,
interventions and community organizing
Offer specific expertise in how to best incorporate the principles
of health and safety promotion for drug users.
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3. HRC Programs & Services
Policy Advocacy
Lifting the Federal Funding Ban on Needle Exchange
National and Regional Conferences
Next conference: Miami, November 2008
The Institute @HRC
Harm Reduction Training Institute
Hepatitis C Project
Skills and Knowledge on Overdose Prevention (SKOOP)
Anti-Stigma Project
African American Capacity Building Initiative (AACBI)
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4. Objectives of Roundtable
Discussion
To increase participants’ awareness about the
successes and challenges faced by a regional, racial/
ethnic specific model of capacity building assistance
(CBA).
To increase participants’ awareness of the specific
CBA strategies and techniques implemented
effectively by AACBI.
To encourage dialogue between CBA providers and
consumers that result in best practices in the
effective provision of CBA services in African
American communities.
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5. Introduction
In order for a comprehensive HIV prevention plan
to be successful, community based
organizations and their frontline staff must
have the necessary skills and resources to
respond efficiently and effectively to this
epidemic.
Thus, CBOs must have the capacity to engage
successfully in HIV prevention efforts,
particularly those efforts involving the
implementation of HIV prevention interventions that
have proven to be effective. 5
6. Background
In 2004, the CDC funded various
organizations to provide capacity building
assistance (CBA) in four areas:
(1) Strengthening Organizational Infrastructure for
HIV Prevention
(2) Strengthening Interventions for HIV Prevention
(3) Strengthening Community Access to and
Utilization of HIV Prevention Services
(4) Strengthening Community Planning for HIV
Prevention
For more information, go to http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/cba/cba.htm
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8. Capacity Building Assistance (CBA)
HIV prevention capacity building is a process
by which individuals, organizations, and
communities develop abilities to enhance and
sustain HIV prevention efforts.
The goal of capacity building is to foster self-
sufficiency and the self-sustaining ability to
improve HIV prevention programs, processes,
and outcomes.
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9. Capacity Building Assistance (CBA)
Capacity building involves a variety of
delivery mechanisms:
1) technology transfer
2) technical/capacity-building assistance
3) training
4) skills building
5) information dissemination
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10. Overview of AACBI
In 2004, the Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC)
received a 5-year grant from the CDC to be a
Focus Area 2 CBA Provider for CBOs and health
departments (HDs) working with African
Americans communities in the North Region.
The African American Capacity Building Initiative
(AACBI), a program of HRC, is a dynamic initiative
aimed at reducing the infection and transmission
rates of HIV/AIDS within African American
communities.
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11. Goals of AACBI
To strengthen the capacity of community based
organizations and health departments to develop and
implement effective HIV prevention interventions
To increase the number of persons of African descent
who get tested for HIV and who know their serostatus
To increase the proportion of HIV infected people of
African descent who are linked to appropriate
prevention, care and treatment services
To decrease the number of people at risk of acquiring
or transmitting HIV infection
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12. Examples of AACBI CBA
Services
Adaptation, implementation, quality assurance, and
evaluation of effective HIV prevention interventions for
high-risk seronegatives and HIV positive individuals.
Training on and adaptation of the Safety Counts and
VOICES/VOCES Diffusion of Effective Behavioral
Interventions (DEBIs).
Integrating cultural competence and linguistic
appropriateness into HIV prevention intervention
activities.
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13. AACBI Team
Camille A. Abrahams, Program Director
Jagadisa-devasri Dacus, Senior Director of Training and Capacity
Building Programs (part-time)
Dorcey Jones, CBA Specialist
Adam Viera, CBA Specialist
Velvet Lattimore, Program Assistant (part-time)
Dr. Darrell Wheeler, Behavioral and Social Science Consultant
Dr. Bernadette Hadden, Evaluation Consultant
Angela Coleman, Curriculum Writer Consultant
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AACBI Regional Consultants
15. Methodology
Formal/informal interviews with AACBI staff
Interviews and focus groups with CBA
consumers
Review of case files that included action plans,
detailed progress notes, Consumer Satisfaction
Surveys, CBA completion forms, and
communications between AACBI and CBA
consumers
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16. Lesson #1:
A team-based approach helps to
ensure effective and efficient
service delivery
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25. Lesson #10:
Short-term CBA successes are
documented, but time will tell
whether long-term results are
achieved
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26. Lesson #11:
CBA consumers need to feel a
sense of empowerment to be able
to sustain their programs after the
CBA provider has left
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27. Lesson #12:
Flexibility is key,
as change is inevitable
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28. Conclusions:
Many of the lessons centered on the need
for open communication and
collaboration between CBA providers,
CBA consumers, CDC program officers,
and CDC program consultants in order to
ensure efficient and effective capacity
building.
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29. Conclusions:
The overarching theme across the lessons
learned is that providing capacity
building assistance has its rewards, but
it is not without its challenges.
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30. African American Capacity Building Initiative
A Program of the Harm Reduction Coalition
22 West 27th Street, 5th Floor
New York, New York 10001
Tel: 212-213-6376
Fax: 212-213-6582
Email: aacbihrc@harmreduction.org
Website: www.harmreduction.org
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Hinweis der Redaktion
The African American Capacity Building Initiative (AACBI) is proud to be a program of the Harm Reduction Coalition, founded in 1994 to work with individuals and communities at risk for HIV infection due to drug use and high-risk sexual behaviors. Because injection and other drug users in the African American community are at significant risk of HIV infection and transmission, the Harm Reduction Coalition saw the need to work with those groups that were already working to provide HIV prevention interventions to African Americans and to aid them in their work, while offering its specific expertise in how to best incorporate the principles of health and safety promotion for drug users. The harm reduction movement started decades ago in Western Europe and was introduced to the US in the late 1970s/early 1980s when the HIV epidemic began to spread like wildfire, especially among IDUs. Current & former drug users started HRC to promote the health & human rights of drug users
technology transfer – the process by which innovations are diffused among HIV prevention providers to improve how intervention effectiveness and scientific research is translated into programs and practice. technical assistance – the provision and/or facilitation of culturally relevant and expert programmatic, scientific, and technical advice (mentoring/coaching) and support. CBB members provide assistance to grantees in areas such as organizational infrastructure development, program implementation, adaptation and tailoring of behavioral interventions, and evaluation. training – curricula development, delivery of curricula and coordination of training activities to increase the knowledge, skills and abilities of trainers, educators and service providers. Training focuses on the delivery of effective HIV prevention interventions and strategies, such as: prevention counseling partner counseling, testing and referral services (PCRS) prevention case management (PCM) and implementation of rapid testing. Training activities also include facilitation skills, recruitment strategies, adaptation and tailoring guidance that increases knowledge, skills, and abilities required to implement HIV prevention interventions, and programs and services. Trainings are provided directly to service providers for implementation or to educators/trainers in a Train-the-Trainer (TOT) format for further dissemination. Facilitation of trainings is provided in English and Spanish. information dissemination – distribution and sharing of relevant and current HIV prevention information (reviewed by peer materials review committees prior to dissemination) through print materials, presentations, websites, and mass media.
In providing capacity building assistance (CBA) services, AACBI uses several CBA best practices, including: Cultural Competence Intergration Needs-Driven Action Plans Comprehensive Consumer Involvement Integration of CDC-Endorsed Best Practices Continuous Program Improvement Our goals are aligned with the CDC, which directly funds our program