Community Engagement

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  • Forward in SYNChronicity for HIV Care and Treatment

    Community Mental Health Project

    HIV Care and Treatment Track

    In collaboration with Columbia Psychiatry and New York Public Library, the community mental health project was created to address the impact of mental health on the Black and Afro-Latino communities in NYC, especially during and right after the COVID-19 pandemic. The intervention aims to engage the community in discussion around mental health and thus minimize stigma and advocate for innovative strategies to increase the utilization of mental health services within the community.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for HIV Care and Treatment

    Hartford Employment Initiative: Addressing Critical Employment Gaps for Persons Living with HIV (PLWH)

    HIV Care and Treatment Track

    The employment landscape for PLWH in the Hartford Transitional Grant Area (TGA) presents significant challenges. According to the 2022 Statewide Needs Assessment Survey, 54.46% of PLWH were unemployed, with 59.46% unemployment within the TGA. Among respondents, 78% of individuals over 50 lacked access to career and life skills training, limiting their ability to secure stable, fulfilling employment.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for HIV Care and Treatment

    Language Justice and Accessibility: Navigating Services for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Deafblind People Living with HIV

    HIV Care and Treatment Track

    This session will provide an overview of how Deaf Community Advocacy Network (Deaf C.A.N.!) Deaf HIV Program addresses the unique challenges of PWLH who are Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing navigating Ryan White Services. Through provider assessments and cultural competency training, client assessments and workshops to improve health literacy on HIV prevention and HIV treatment, and workshops for interpreters to increase their understanding of ever growing HIV terminology such as viral load suppression and U=U, Deaf C.A.N.! has expanded their case management services from 7 counties in the Detroit Metropolitan Area to the entire state of Michigan, increased partnerships, and improved client satisfaction

  • LGBTQIA+ Health and Community Engagement in a Politically Charged Climate

    LGBTQ Health Track

    This presentation explores strategies for effective LGBTQIA+ health promotion and community engagement amid a shifting sociopolitical landscape. Drawing on recent case studies, grassroots initiatives, and community-led research, we examine the ways in which LGBTQIA+ individuals and organizations are responding to policy rollbacks and social hostility. We highlight inclusive health interventions, mutual aid networks, and coalition-building as mechanisms for advocacy and care.

  • Conversations: Out Of Gender

    LGBTQ Health Track

    'Out of Gender Conversations’ is an interactive training and workshop developed to offer insight, awareness, and care guidance for those providing care for LGBTQ+, gender variant communities and people.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for Drug User Health

    Cool Kids Carry Narcan: A Rural Community Model for Equitable Naloxone Access and Overdose Prevention

    Drug User Health Track

    Cool Kids Carry Narcan is a rural overdose prevention initiative led by Berkshire Harm Reduction, a program of Berkshire Health Systems in western Massachusetts. Designed to address geographic and racial inequities in naloxone access, the project currently installs and maintains 124 public NaloxBoxes while pairing distribution with community training and stigma-reduction campaigns.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for Drug User Health

    Empowerment Circle: A Peer-Led Recovery Support Group Integrating HIV Prevention, Harm Reduction, and Whole-Community Wellness

    Drug User Health Track

    The Empowerment Circle is a peer-led recovery support group serving individuals impacted by substance use, trauma, HIV, and systemic health disparities across the broader community—including LGBTQ+ populations, returning citizens, older adults, and people with lived experience of homelessness. What makes this model unique is its inclusive approach: while centering recovery, it intentionally brings together diverse participants in a shared healing space.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for Drug User Health

    Successes in Diagnosis and Linkage Where HIV and Viral Hepatitis Testing Programming Occurs Within a Syringe Service Program (SSP)

    Drug User Health Track

    Queen City Harm Reduction (QCHR) is the only organization expressly centered around harm reduction principles and syringe access in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where the city of Charlotte is based, and seeks to minimize the harms associated with substance use and other intersecting conditions such as sex work, justice involvement, and homelessness. QCHR proactively educates peers and the community on drug user health promoting prevention of infectious disease, overdose, and compassionate care.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for Drug User Health

    The Healing Room: Yoga and Other Alternative Healing Modalities as Tools for Harm Reduction

    Drug User Health Track

    This session explores the emerging evidence supporting yoga and other healing modalities as a complementary harm reduction tool, particularly in underserved or high-risk populations. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, community-based programs, and trauma-informed frameworks, it underscores alternative healing modalities potential to serve not as a replacement for clinical treatment but as an accessible, empowering adjunct that supports individual agency, healing, and long-term well-being.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for HIV Prevention

    The Provision of STI Education and HIV Testing among Incarcerated Youth in Alabama

    HIV Prevention Track

    In 2022 in Alabama, youth age 13-24 made up the majority of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases, and nearly a quarter of new HIV diagnoses, illustrating the need for STI prevention efforts aimed at this population. Incarcerated youth represent a group more vulnerable to HIV/STI infection than youth in general. The UAB Family Clinic has partnered with the Alabama Department of Youth Services to provide HIV/STI education confidential HIV testing to youth held in detention facilities across the state of Alabama. In 2024, the UAB Family Clinic provided comprehensive HIV/STI education to approximately 350 youth across 3 sites, 268 of whom opted to be tested for HIV.

  • Transgender Empathy Training: Transforming Understanding Into Action

    LGBTQ Health Track

    Transgender Empathy Training is an interactive, community-centered educational program designed to cultivate cultural humility, deepen understanding, and expand institutional capacity to support transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people. Grounded in trauma-informed care, intersectional analysis, and lived experience, this training moves beyond basic terminology and policy compliance to build genuine human connection and sustained allyship.

  • Unhoused and Unheard: Addressing Structural Racism and STI Risk in Queer Youth Care

    LGBTQ Health Track

    This presentation examines how housing precarity and systemic bias shape clinical encounters with queer adolescents of color. Drawing from direct clinical practice, supervision, and education within urban community settings, it highlights the ways traditional care models often replicate inequities through rigid policies, pathologizing language, and a lack of intersectional awareness.

  • Forward in SYNChronicity for HIV Care and Treatment

    Fostering Community within the Community: The Long-Term Survivors Hub for Older Adults Living with HIV

    HIV Care and Treatment Track

    There is limited programming focused on the health and wellness of long-term survivors of HIV. With people living longer and their needs shifting, the number of resources that are available and accessible to seek care or even social interactions becomes scarce. The Long-Term Survivors Hub (LTS Hub) was created to continue to nurture and foster social engagement among older adults who have lived, worked, and fought for this community.

Commercial Support Acknowledgement

This conference is supported, in part, by independent educational grants from ineligible companies. A full list of supporters is available here. All accredited content has been developed and delivered in accordance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence and the criteria of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™, and is free of commercial bias.