A five-year, $1.9 million CDC grant is allowing two Detroit health and social service agencies to expand HIV testing and education programs aimed at black males ages 13-24. AIDS Partnership Michigan (APM) and the Ruth Ellis Center, which provides the state's only street outreach and transitional housing program for homeless and runaway gay youth, will collaborate on the programs.

Barbara Murray, executive director of APM, said the grant will help the agencies buy rapid HIV tests, which provide results in 20 minutes. These are especially suited for the highly mobile population being targeted, she said.

The programs will be based out of the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit's Cass Corridor. APH will oversee the management, testing and referral services offered.

Of the 16,200 people in Michigan estimated to have HIV/AIDS, two-thirds live in metro Detroit. Fifty-one percent of the state's HIV/AIDS cases are men who have sex with men.

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