Services We Offer:
Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund
.jpg)
Capacity Building Experience
HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Experience
The CAI/Atlanta office was established in 2000 as a part of the national technical assistance project managed by Cicatelli Associates Inc., and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the last seven years CAI/Atlanta has collaborated with state and local health departments to offer capacity-building trainings on HIV/AIDS prevention, related health issues and non-profit management topics to community-based organizations (CBOs) in Southern States of the U.S. The office maintains on-going collaborative relationships with state health department staff of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.
In addition to trainings offered in the Southeast, under the management of the CAI/Atlanta and New York offices, the national Regional Resource Network (RRN) project was focused on building the capacity of local communities to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services to minority communities disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. In meeting this goal, the Regional Resource Network Coordinators (RRCs),who were CAI staff, traveled to states in each region of the country and worked with state health departments and community-based agencies to provide hands on tools, skills, mini-grants, one-on-one technical assistance and group workshops.
We are proud of the work of CAI staff on this project. An independent evaluation of the project submitted to the Office of the Secretary of DHHS, identified the following:
Strengths and Best Practices
- The Regional Resource Network has provided extensive and valuable services and has increased the capacity of small, community-based organizations working on HIV/AIDS in minority communities through an average of nearly 4,000 hours of technical assistance, intensive technical assistance to over 100 agencies, and more than $2 million in capacity-building awards.
- The RRCs (Regional Resource Coordinators) played an important liaison role between the community and the federal system, presenting an approachable face to CBOs, and linking them to technical assistance and other regional offices and programs.
- The RRCs have filled a special niche: finding and working with small, minority CBOs that would otherwise be unlikely to come to the attention of federal agencies including faith-based organizations and non-traditional organizations that serve people living with HIV/AIDS.
- RRCs have successfully used a variety of methods and partners to reach out to CBOs in their regions, including linkages to state health departments, participation in HIV/AIDS community planning bodies, direct community outreach, and word of mouth.
- RRCs in all regions have available a similar mix of TA approaches, but have refined their approaches and service mix to fit the needs of their regions including one-on-one technical assistance, large-scale training sessions, and collaborative partnerships and programs.
- The RRN has had consistent internal management and oversight through its transition from OPA to OMH and OMH to OHAP.
- The Regional Resource Network has provided a service unique in the regions, working across all federal agencies, serving as a resource on HIV/AIDS in the regional offices, and providing an expanded reach into communities for other regional staff.
As stated in the national evaluation, the project was innovative in two key ways. First, it placed ten employees of CAI in the ten regional offices of DHHS to work along with the regional office staff and state health departments to reach the needs of local communities. Secondly, it was also innovative in the manner in which it engaged the community and adapted federal technical assistance tools and partnerships to support communities in providing services. In keeping with the mission of CAI to meet the needs of vulnerable populations, the majority of those receiving capacity building funding and technical assistance were from communities of color, representing a full gamut of the communities including faith-based, rural, urban local providers.
Among the many successes of the project were:
- Providing over $3.1 million in funding to 964 agencies
- RRCs having 16,716 documented contact incidents.
- Reaching more than 3,350 individuals at 2,190 offices or agencies with TA and mini-grants to support HIV/AIDS services
- Authoring two CDC abstracts
- Using innovative partnerships with social service and federal agencies; faith-based, private and non-traditional service providers to address community needs.
CAI would like to thank the three offices of the U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services that funded the program over the last seven years:
Office of Population Affairs, Office of Minority Health and Office on
HIV/AIDS Policy. In addition, we would like to thank the many federal and
state staff members who supported our regional team and worked in
partnership with us as trainers. They helped make this project a success
in building our collective capacity to meet the needs of communities
impacted by HIV/AIDS.
We look forward to continuing our technical assistance in partnership with local communities through our Atlanta office.
Cicatelli Associates Inc. -
Atlanta
100 Edgewood Ave., NE,
Suite 900
Atlanta, GA 30303
PHONE 404-521-2151
FAX 404-521-2153
Barbara Cicatelli, President
Cassandra Malone, MPH
Center Director
Email: CMalone@cicatelli.org
Abigail McCulloch, BA
Program Analyst
Email:
AMcCulloch@cicatelli.org
