Action Steps

HIV/AIDS is unraveling the very fabric of the African American community. The medical, social, psychological, and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on African American communities is far-reaching. Prevention is key to stemming the tide of HIV/AIDS in African American communities. As more African Americans learn their HIV serostatus (through initiatives such as CDC's Advancing HIV Prevention), infrastructures must be in place to ensure that African Americans living with HIV/AIDS are linked to appropriate care and treatment.

Since the roles of state and local health departments, federal agencies, policy makers, and national non-governmental organizations are critical to addressing HIV/AIDS in the African American community, NASTAD challenges these organizations with the following five action steps:

1. Strategic Prioritization and Resource Allocation
   • Conduct a critical analysis of infrastructure, existing services, and service delivery systems to ensure that current practices appropriately reflect the needs and concerns of African Americans to reduce HIV transmission.
   • Collaborate with DHHS and its agencies, including CDC, HRSA, NIH, and SAMHSA, to develop a strategy to ensure that funds target African American communities at greatest need and support programs and interventions with greatest proven impact.
   • Conduct a comprehensive analysis within state and local health departments of HIV prevention resources targeted at Black MSM, with a particular focus on high incidence jurisdictions.
   • Increase funding for the continuum of HIV/AIDS programs administered by state and local health departments, particularly those targeting African Americans in underserved areas of the country.
   • Enhance qualitative data collection for populations at highest risk in the African American community and on behaviors that put them at risk, with a focus on exploring social and family networks.
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2. Policy Education
   • Partner with community-based organizations (CBOs), community activists, and faith leaders to increase their capacity in coalition-building, policy education, and advocacy.
   • Inform elected officials, particularly African American representatives in state legislatures, about the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African Americans, both nationally and within their local jurisdictions.
   • Support NGOs to work with state and local health departments and AIDS directors, to build the policy education capacity of indigenous African American CBOs to address HIV/AIDS among African Americans.

3. Research Initiatives
   • Increase funding for research to develop effective behavioral and biomedical interventions that reach high-risk African Americans with a particular focus on Black MSM.
   • Support African American participation in HIV vaccine trials and ethically-sound treatment research.
   • Facilitate collaboration between health departments, community planning groups, and funding agencies to enhance the dissemination of HIV/AIDS focused research and public information.

4. Strategic Collaborations
   • Strengthen collaborative efforts among federal, state and local entities responsible for core public health functions.
   • Convene a task force across federal agencies conducting HIV/AIDS programs to develop a comprehensive federal agenda to combat HIV/AIDS in African American communities.
   • Utilize local and state-based surveillance data to educate health care providers on their local epidemic, to enhance HIV, STD, and hepatitis screening for African Americans and to ensure that HIV/STD/hepatitis prevention information is widely disseminated, especially to high-risk populations.
   • Strengthen collaborations between health departments and health care providers to promote effective HIV prevention strategies for women that include early diagnosis and treatment of STDs.
   • Strengthen collaborations between health departments and state criminal justice systems to address the HIV prevention, care, and treatment needs of incarcerated populations.
   • Facilitate collaborations between health departments and substance abuse agencies to provide HIV, STD, and viral hepatitis counseling and testing for current and former substance users, and to ensure the availability of treatment options.
   • Facilitate collaborations between health departments and state and local departments of education to support and enhance comprehensive school-based sexual health education, including HIV prevention education.

5. Coalition and Partnership Building
   • Foster coalitions and partnerships with stakeholders who represent a broad range of African American constituencies including community leaders, faith-based communities, educational institutions, media outlets, civil rights groups, and civic organizations.
   • Explore opportunities for partnerships to address HIV/AIDS related issues, including substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, homelessness, and teen pregnancy.
   • Seek opportunities for dialogue to explore and respond to co-factors that put African Americans at risk for HIV, including historical barriers, such as a deep mistrust of the public health care system, low health care-seeking behaviors, and HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination.
   • Explore opportunities for partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry, particularly companies with established programs targeting African American communities.

A Call to Action

The nation has waged a war against HIV/AIDS for more than two decades, and during this time it has witnessed the epidemic's proliferation into virtually every segment of the African American community. The unfortunate reality is that as time has passed, public interest, federal funding, and media attention has waned. Awareness of the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on African Americans is simply not enough. The nation must take ownership and reinvigorate the response to this crisis within African American communities and beyond. A comprehensive response to addressing HIV/AIDS in African American communities must include state and local health departments, federal agencies, policy makers, and national organizations.

NASTAD urges its members, national organizations, federal partners, CBOs, and community leaders to adopt the action steps in this Call to Action, and work together to effectively and proactively tackle this public health crisis.

"As a pillar of strength and support in the African American community, faith communities are uniquely positioned to be a force in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Black Church has consistently served as a cornerstone of leadership and compassion in the Black community. The organization and structure of the Black Church facilitate the expansion of its leaders' and congregants' roles to provide HIV education and promotion, prevention, and intervention services, mobilize their communities, and participate in advocacy efforts." Pernessa Steele Founder/CEO, CEO, The Balm In Gilead, Inc.