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Vital Signs

America’s Cities Promote AIDS Prevention in Minority Communities

In 1998, then-President Clinton challenged the nation to do something about the severe health crisis of HIV/AIDS in racial and ethnic minority communities—and America’s cities and their mayors have risen to that challenge. In fact, efforts by the nation’s metro centers to support the goals of the federal Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative—part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ larger Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health—seem to be gaining unprecedented momentum in the 21st century.

On February 7, 2002, a total of 62 cities coast to coast took part in the second annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, designed to help residents of African-American communities learn more about the disease, get free testing for HIV infection and get involved in advocating for the resources necessary to fight HIV/AIDS. Initially, only 14 target cities—including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Detroit—were scheduled to participate. But as a spokesman for the project told Minority Nurse, “[The event] expanded far beyond the original scope.”

According to another of the initiative’s coordinators, Terry Handy, AIDS awareness activities in participating cities ranged from press conferences, community forums and rallies to health fairs and dramatic performances. In addition to a national proclamation from HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, each city had a local proclamation presented by its mayor. An impressive list of black leaders served as national spokespersons for this massive community mobilization effort, including NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume and Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

How successful was National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2002? “All the reports I’ve received from cities so far have been of great successes,” says Handy, “both in terms of numbers of people attending and numbers of people being tested.”

Another way America’s mayors are showing their commitment to fighting AIDS in minority communities is the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ ongoing HIV/AIDS Prevention Grants program. In December 2001, the USCM awarded grants totaling more than $800,000 to 13 community-based health organizations across the country. Nine of these groups will use the funding to conduct HIV prevention programs for gay/bisexual African-American, Hispanic or Asian men; the other four will target HIV prevention in Native American communities.

Some of the groups that received USCM grants were: Us Helping Us of Washington, D.C., which will use its $66,000 grant to target gay/bisexual black men who use the Internet to find sexual partners; the Asian Pacific Islander AIDS Intervention Team in Los Angeles, which received $65,280 to target gay/bisexual Filipino men; and the Intermountain Harm Reduction Project in Salt Lake City, which will apply its $60,000 grant to preventing HIV in homeless and substance-abusing Native Americans engaging in risky sexual behaviors. (The complete list of grantees is available online at www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/aids_120501.asp.)

All of the funded programs will begin in early 2002. The USCM plans to award another round of minority HIV grants later this year.