Three Dallas-based nonprofits were awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding to expand HIV prevention and treatment, in a city with one of the highest HIV rates in Texas.
The nonprofits received up to $400,000 each to expand prevention models led by community health workers. The two-year grants are part of a larger initiative that includes more than 30 organizations across the country.
“It's not something that can be solved by one organization,” said Sonya Radtke, the Chief Development Officer at Resource Center, an HIV and AIDS service organization in North Texas. “We can't do this alone, so we just want to be that hub of resources to be able to connect people to affirming events and opportunities in their backyard.”
The grants came from the Gilead Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the major pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences.
Radtke said Dallas County has the second highest population of people living with HIV, and Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected. She said there’s a “complicated web” of factors that contribute to disparities in Dallas.
“So that really requires a diverse set of solutions,” Radtke said.
Radtke said the funding will support existing programs that provide a wide range of services and solutions — like community wellness programs and a mobile clinic. The organization’s goal is to serve at least 3,000 community members with the funding.
Among other things, Resource Center provides HIV testing, as well as resources based on the results of the test. If someone learns they don’t have HIV, Resource Center can connect them to community programs and even PrEP — a medication that prevents about 99% of HIV infections, Radtke said. If someone does find out they have an HIV diagnosis, Radtke said they’re “immediately connected” to treatment and resources.
Patients, regardless of their HIV status, also have access to health counseling and support and community programs.
“HIV prevention is really woven through everything,” Radtke said. “It's something that we really wanted to normalize as part of routine care and make sure that people have access to the information and the resources needed to stay HIV free, or if you do have HIV to be able to manage that and live a thriving life.”
Resource Center is one five Texas organizations to receive funding from the Gilead Foundation initiative.
Abounding Prosperity, another Dallas-based HIV and STI clinic, also received a grant, as did Laredo-based clinic, PILLAR, and Allies in Hope in Houston — the oldest AIDS Service Organization in Texas.
Texas and New York received the most awards among the 14 states included in the $12 million initiative.
Jared Baeten, senior vice president of clinical development and virology therapeutic area head at Gilead Sciences, said the awards were focused on areas that have been identified in the U.S. as “ending the HIV epidemic priority.”
“There's about 50 counties around the country that are identified as priority areas for ending HIV because they're disproportionately affected,” he said. “These awards operate at the confluence of where there is need, but also where there are organizations that have the capacity... and the plan for measurable outcomes to affect the kind of impact everybody wants.”
Baeten said community-based organizations know what their communities need and how to provide locally attentive care.
For some, that meant using the funding to address a gap in the community — at a critical moment in which HIV funding and services are encountering increasing instability.
Prism Health North Texas, a system of community health centers, looked at the grant as a chance to expand HIV services through its women’s health program.
“Dallas continues to have one of the highest HIV burdens in Texas,” Kim Burgan, chief marketing and development officer for Prism Health. “The rising rates are in women.”
About 20 percent of Prism Health’s patients are women. Burgan said many of those women don’t have access to an OB-GYN or women’s health in general.
“Nearly half of those women are identified as Black or Latina,” she said. “They are groups that are historically, disproportionately impacted by HIV and underrepresented in prevention and treatment.”
Prism Health’s plan is to hire a community health worker to act as a bridge between the community and clinical services. The community health worker will collaborate with the organization’s outreach and marketing teams to expand the reach while relying on resources and services already available.
Prism Health will likely post the position within a month, Burgen said.
“We're already doing some of the campaign work,” she said. "But the actual community health worker, it'll be probably another six weeks before they're in the community.”
In the meantime, Burgen said anyone can ask to have an HIV and STI screening as part of their primary care visit.
She said Prism Health hopes to make people aware that HIV isn’t just a concern for men and HIV prevention is accessible to everyone.
“If we can address that and get women to understand that, that's going to be a huge win for, not just Prism, but for the community at large,” Burgen said.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
