In the Spring of 2012, the Capacity For Health (C4H) Project at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) began a multi-component national assessment of HIV/AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) and HIV/AIDS-serving Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) providing HIV/AIDS services in the United States. The C4H Project is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) to CBOs involved in HIV prevention.
The purpose of the assessment was to better understand the impact of changes in HIV/AIDS prevention, funding shifts, and treatment advances on CBOs’ organizational stability and sustainability. The assessment utilized document reviews, surveys, and key informant interviews to examine the fiscal health of CBOs, the capacity of CBOs to deliver and/or link to medical services, and the readiness of CBOs’ leadership and governance to navigate these changes.
The assessment concludes with a series of concrete recommendations to address these findings, including provision of specific CBA services; more widespread and effective provider education on the status and future of the Ryan White Treatment Extension Act and the Affordable Care Act in order to inform program/service planning and delivery; dissemination of case studies of HIV/AIDS-serving CBOs that have been highly successful in changing, adapting, and growing to evolving realities; initiation of a national conversation about social enterprise development in the HIV/AIDS service community; and provision of highly targeted CBA to organizations facing acute and
serious financial crisis.