Projects

NACCHO's HIV/AIDS Prevention Policy Initiative began in September 2007 with a cooperative agreement between NACCHO and the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) at 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 regarding HIV/AIDS prevention. NACCHO is working toward this goal through the following activities:

• Identifying and sharing best practices for LHD HIV/AIDS prevention;
• Disseminating HIV/AIDS policy-related information through NACCHO's electronic and print communication mechanisms;
• Supporting a sentinel network of 75 LHD HIV prevention staff from across the country by conducting online queries to gather feedback on CDC policy and practice recommendations and local HIV prevention challenges and successes; and
• Developing HIV/AIDS-related policy statements through NACCHO's HIV/STI Prevention Workgroup, which is comprised of LHD HIV and STI directors and lead program staff. 

In June 2011, NACCHO was awarded funding through a cooperative agreement with the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) at CDC to increase the capacity of education and health agencies to establish and maintain effective sexual health promotion policies to prevent HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancy (UP). Towards achieving this goal, NACCHO will provide capacity building assistance to a select group of local education and health agencies and their community partners, with a specific focus on supporting the use of policy, systems, and environmental change strategies to improve the sexual health of adolescents.

Through a previous cooperative agreement with CDC/DASH, NACCHO worked to build the capacity of LHDs to prevent adolescent HIV, other STIs, and UP in their communities through: support of peer technical assistance among LHDs; provision of training, technical assistance, and funding through a demonstration site program to support and promote collaboration among LHDs, their local education agencies, and community partners; and an initiative to promote collaboration among state and local health and education agencies to coordinate adolescent HIV, other STI, and UP prevention activities.  

Click here to find out more about NACCHO’s Adolescent HIV/STI and Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Demonstration Sites Project, including tools and resources developed during the process.

In 2011, NACCHO received funding from the Division of STD Prevention (DSTDP) at CDC to increase the capacity of LHDs to prevent and control STDs in their communities. As a part of this project, NACCHO will identify and disseminate field-tested models of innovative STD prevention programs.  

Additionally, this project will support an evaluation of the Get Yourself Tested (GYT) campaign, a partnership between CDC and MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America and an assessment of the capacity of LHD STD/HIV programs to provide comprehensive STD prevention services in a changing health care delivery system.  

NACCHO’s HIV/STI Prevention Workgroup serves as an advisory group for NACCHO’s HIV/STI-related projects, programs, and activities. The workgroup is comprised of eight members representing local and state health departments of various sizes and loocations. Workgroup members are HIV and/or STI directors or program staff at their health departments. Click here for a list of workgroup members.

Key functions of the workgroup are to:

• Make policy recommendations to the NACCHO board of directors;
  
• Represent NACCHO and local health departments at HIV/STI-related conferences, meetings, and consultations;
  
• Provide input and direction to NACCHO’s cooperative agreements with DHAP, DASH, and DSTDP and other funders;
  
• Provide feedback to public health agencies about HIV/STI-related policies and practices;
  
• Work with CDC leadership to improve coordination among all three levels of governmental public health- federal, state, and local- as it relates to HIV/STI-related policies and practices; and
  
• Identify ways to collaborate with national partners to advance HIV and STI prevention nationally.