hivaidsStigma

National Council of La Raza

National Council of La Raza (NCLR), founded in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, DC, is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. NCLR works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs). NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy in five key areas from a Latino perspective -- assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health.

With funding from AED, NCLR, in partnership with the Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation, and Leadership Training at the California State University in Long Beach, will develop a program entitled Salud es Cultura: Protegete. The program will build on a national HIV/AIDS prevention program adapted from research findings of NCLR's 14-site needs assessment and HIV/AIDS Latino Families Prevention Project. The program objectives for Salud es Cultura: Protegete are:

• To reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma within Latino communities through a portable promotores (peer education) program designed to provide accurate and culturally appropriate HIV prevention and outreach information;
• To engage HIV affected promotores (individuals with a friend or family member with HIV/AIDS) and HIV positive peer advocates from each site in the development and testing of the curriculum;
• To evaluate program effectiveness including whether HIV testing increased among Latinos at risk; and
• To disseminate the full kit to 100 promotores at no fewer than 16 CBOs seeking to develop HIV/AIDS peer education programs targeting Latinos.