HIV and STI Prevention

NACCHO’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Policy Initiative began in September 2007 when NACCHO entered into a cooperative agreement with the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of the initiative is to establish and institutionalize mechanisms that will ensure an ongoing and mutually beneficial information exchange between CDC/DHAP and local health department (LHD) officials and program staff around HIV/AIDS prevention. NACCHO is working toward this goal through the following activities:

• Identifying and sharing LHD best practices in HIV/STI prevention;
• Disseminating HIV policy-related information through existing communication mechanisms;
• Working with a sentinel network of LHD HIV prevention staff from across the country to conduct bi-monthly online queries to gather feedback on CDC policy and practice recommendations, including barriers to policy implementation at the local level; and
  
• Developing HIV/AIDS and STI-related policy through NACCHO’s HIV/STI Prevention Workgroup, comprised of LHD directors and lead HIV/STI program staff.

The Adolescent HIV Prevention Project began in May 2004 when NACCHO entered into a cooperative agreement with the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) of the CDC. The goal of the project is to build the capacity of LHDs to prevent adolescent HIV, STI, and unintended pregnancy in their communities. NACCHO is working toward this goal through the following activities:

• Funding and providing technical support to two local health department (LHD) demonstration sites to enhance adolescent HIV, STD, and unintended pregnancy prevention in their jurisdictions and share related resources and lessons learned with other LHDs;
• Facilitating conference calls with pairs of DASH-funded local education agencies (LEAs) and their LHD counterparts to identify common objectives and associated opportunities for enhancing collaboration and avoiding duplication of efforts;
• Identifying LHDs to provide adolescent HIV/STI and/or unintended pregnancy prevention peer technical assistance and facilitating peer technical assistance sessions via teleconference and in-person follow-up visits;
• Identifying adolescent-specific tools, resources, and other adaptable materials to include in the NACCHO HIV/STI Toolkit;
• Reviewing and sharing local health department HIV and STI prevention model and promising practices through NACCHO’s Share What Works: NACCHO Model and Promising Practices database; and
  
• Hosting webcasts to enhance LHD capacity to reach adolescents at highest risk of HIV infection.