Deadline: 23-Jun-21
Positive Action Southern Initiative is seeking proposals from community-based organizations to expand outreach, partnerships and social and emotional services to engage those individuals that are out-of-care.
The Positive Action Southern Initiative is a unique funding stream focused on supporting community programs that are engaging those typically ‘out of reach’ and left behind – including people who use drugs, young LGBTQ people, folks who experience homelessness, live in rural areas, have experienced incarceration, engage in sex work and many others.
In the South, these groups experience more stigma and discrimination, more income inequality and less access to the standard of care.
All Positive Action Southern Initiative projects must be focused on reaching more people in their community who are out of care, and connecting them to care.
PASI projects should identify, link / re-link and engage PLWHA who are out-of-care through the following strategies:
- Expanding outreach and navigation capacity to focus on people who are out-of-care and provide high touch support for people navigating health care systems
- Partnering with other health and community services to build infrastructure that can help better reach and serve people who are not in care
- Connecting people with strong social and emotional supportive services to address barriers to care and build networks of support. Promising linkage, re-linkage and engagement services might include:
- Adapting or expanding linkage, re-linkage and engagement programs to respond to the needs of PLWHA who have fallen out of care due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Expanding or enhancing peer-led interventions that help link, re-link and navigate people through care. This might look like outreach, case management or peer navigation.
- Building connections and collaborations with different organizations in your community that are critical to successfully identifying, linking/re-linking and engaging PLWHA who are out-of-care (e.g., housing organizations, mental healthcare, churches, healthcare providers, social service organizations, workforce development agencies, transportation services, etc.).
- Improving project and staff capacity to provide culturally appropriate resources for people who are outof-care in your community while linking and navigating individuals into care. This may include hiring harm reduction specialists, bilingual staff, and peers who have experienced challenges to engaging in care.
- Enhancing stigma reduction strategies, including developing safe spaces, in your project, to foster leadership and self-advocacy among people living with HIV.
Intended Outcomes
PASI projects should focus on one or more of the following:
- Increase number of out-of-care PLWHA linked/re-linked, and engaged in care.
- Reduce challenges to access affirming-quality medical and supportive services for underserved communities.
- Strengthen system of referrals and connections that help close service/gaps in care.
- Increase PLWHA self-advocacy efforts for care and engagement in HIV activities.
- Improve capacity of organizations to provide culturally competent and affirming care that meets the unique needs of PLWHA who are out-of-care.
- Reduce isolation through stronger networks of PLWHA and those who serve/support PLWHA.
- Enhance and expand community commitment to supporting PLWHA and reducing stigmatizing behavior.
Funding Information
- Eligible organizations may apply for a 3-year project grant, up to $100,000 per year.
Eligibility
At minimum, eligible nonprofit organizations must meet all of the following criteria, and/or engage a fiscal sponsor that meets all of the following criteria:
- Be a 501(c)(3) Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-designated nonprofit organization;
- Be located in the U.S. or Puerto Rico;
- Provide programs and support primarily to those persons or communities impacted by or affected by HIV in the U.S.;
- Receive no more than 25 percent of your total operating budget (total annual revenue) in 2020 from ViiV Healthcare and anticipate the same for 2021; and
- Organizations applying for the grant must be the same organization receiving the funds and must be responsible for the implementation and management of the project.
- Organizations in Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia are eligible to submit proposals.
For more information, visit https://viivhealthcare.com/en-us/positive-action-southern-initiative/