HIV Prevention
Events
A Group Level Approach to Reduce HIV and STIs in Women of Color Residing in Low-Income and Transitional Housing in the Urban South
Black women at are increased risk HIV of infection compared to women in general. In 2022 in Alabama, over half of HIV people living with HIV were Black, almost a quarter were women, and 1 in 5 were unaware of their status. This data supports a need for HIV prevention interventions among youth and adults in the state.
Building Trust Through Culture: Vivent Health and the Ballroom Scene’s Role in Advancing PrEP Uptake
This 20-minute workshop explores how cultural competency and community-based participatory practice (CBPP) models are being implemented to center community voices and ensure public health interventions are both relevant and affirming. Strategies include peer-led engagement, wellness-themed mini-balls, and house-based dialogues that allow for honest conversations around HIV, stigma, and care. Participants will be introduced to the CBPP model and the Cultural Competence Continuum as guiding frameworks for equity-driven outreach.
Did You Forget to Ask About Sex and Drugs Again? Integrating Sexual Health, HIV, and Harm Reduction Into Mental Health Care
This session will introduce a pleasure-based approach to sexual heath and provide guidance on asking affirming, inclusive questions for patients who are queer, trans, poly, or engaged in kink. We will discuss current treatment options to managed decreased libido, painful frontal/vaginal sex, and erectile dysfunction. We will review opportunities for a collaborative treatment approach with mental health and primary care providers in combining mental health medications with HIV prevention and treatment medications, including injectables.
Unconventional Community Engagement Approaches
Provide creative ways to go beyond the clinic walls to reach the underserved population. To teach individuals "Out of the box thinking" to get them introduced to PreP and HIV treatment.
Have GOOD Sex: Promoting Sex Positivity, Empowerment, and Inclusivity with Community Engagement for Home-Based HIV Testing
This session explores how sex-positive, pleasure-centered approaches enhance HIV and STI prevention – especially for people living with HIV and communities greatly impacted by HIV. We discuss the benefits of this approach and highlight an innovative initiative based in community voices and engagement: San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH)’s Have Good Sex campaign, which promotes sexual empowerment, inclusivity, and self-directed care through home-based testing. Centering the needs of communities disproportionately impacted by HIV, this program affirms sexual health and well-being through messaging that centers pleasure and autonomy.
Powering Change: Community Engagement Strategies to End the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. South
This session will share retrospective results from SHIF’s 8 Year history, as well as SHIF’s community engagement strategies, developed to intentionally address the common mismatch between public health programs and community needs that often hamper impact. This session will both describe SHIF’s robust community engagement strategies, as well as recommendations to adapt such strategies for similar programming.
Reaching the Unreachable: Strategic Street Outreach for HIV Prevention and Treatment
This presentation will provide an in-depth overview of our agency’s innovative street outreach strategies for HIV prevention and treatment across Texas. We focus on connecting with populations often labeled as “hard to reach” through a combination of trauma-informed care and peer navigation, designed to foster trust and engagement. Our approach prioritizes immediacy—once we identify individuals in need, we work to link them to HIV care or initiate PrEP within 24 hours, and often on the same day. We are leading the effort for prompt diagnosis and linkage to care in Texas when individuals in many areas have to wait days, even weeks, for a doctor's appointment.
The Church Needs HR: Healing and Health Resources for Queer Faith Spaces
The Church Needs HR: Healing and Health Resources for Queer Faith Spaces is an educational and advocacy initiative reframing the role of religion in LGBTQIA health. While public health spaces have made progress in HIV prevention and harm reduction, they often neglect the spiritual realities of queer individuals—especially those from Black and Brown communities—who continue to experience both harm and hope within faith-based contexts.
Building Systemwide Capacity for Syndemic Screening: Baptist Health’s Expansion Across Miami-Dade County
To address the intersecting epidemics of HIV, Hepatitis C (HCV), and syphilis in Miami-Dade County, Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF) expanded its innovative Electronic Health Record (EHR) syndemic screening model across multiple emergency departments in 2024. Building on the success of Homestead Hospital (HH) and West Kendall Baptist Hospital’s (WKBH) routine HIV/HCV screening program, Baptist Main Hospital (BMH) and South Miami Hospital (SMH) implemented scalable workflows and smart syphilis screening algorithms into their EHR. This expansion was supported by strategic public-private partnerships with hospital leadership and the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County (DOH-Miami-Dade) which provided a dedicated Disease Intervention Specialists (DIS) to ensure timely linkage to care and prevention services.
Intercourse: Sex Ed for Congress
This presentation provides an update on federal reproductive healthcare and access litigation and policy, and highlights strategies for systems change, including policy reforms, advocacy, research, collaboration, and capacity-building to address the implications of unequal access to sex education.
Lived Experiences of Black Men Who Have Sex with Men in Washington, DC: Survival and Seroadaptation
Understanding how BMSM, who represent less than 1% of the U.S. population, but account for over one-third of new HIV infections annually, practice seroadaptation can inform new interventions to improve their engagement in HIV services. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study (called the “PhotoUStudy”), which was guided by a conceptual model, the BMSM Intersectional Identity Framework Over the Life Course (BMSM Identity Framework). Thirty-six BMSM who lived in/accessed health services in Washington, D.C., aged 18-65, were recruited into a five-day photovoice activity and follow-up interview.
Making the Uncomfortable Routine: Transforming Sexual Health Conversations in Rural Settings
Participants will learn “how-to” techniques for initiating and guiding conversations about sexual history through a lens of prevention, risk reduction, and patient-centered care. The presentation will emphasize creating a safe, respectful, and non-judgmental environment that encourages patients to ask questions and engage openly. Special attention will be given to the unique challenges faced in rural communities, where stigma, limited resources, and lack of formal education can further inhibit discussions about sexual health.
A Simulation Exercise to Improve Sexual Health and Wellness Training for Nurse Practitioner Students
Evidence shows there are gaps in clinicians’ skills in providing comprehensive sexual health care across diverse populations. Simulation in clinical training has emerged as an effective pedagogy to facilitate student learning of knowledge, skills, and attitudes on a variety of healthcare topics. Faculty at the University of Rochester School of Nursing developed a sexual health simulation for three graduate nurse practitioner (NP) programs (Adult-Gerontology, Family, and Pediatric Primary Care).
Design and Early Findings from the Empower Theater Arts Peer Educator Program
While a myriad of health education and prevention programs exist in the community and on HBCU college campuses, most women are unaware of these resources and, most importantly, the availability and effectiveness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), despite being at greater risk of HIV. Black Women and HIV: Empowerment through Engagement, Education, and Enrichment (“Empower”) is an HBCU led, collaborative, multi-year initiative committed to advancing HIV prevention and sexual health among Black women by implementing culturally responsive education and community engagement.
Getting Spicy: Sex Positivity for Older Adults Living with HIV
This session will explore what it means to communicate with a sex positive lens with older adults living with HIV, with particular attention to language, imagery, and a cross-generational understanding of sexuality. We will then apply those skills and develop some ideas for outreach and communication geared towards the priority population of the attendees.
Blueprint for Expanding HIV Testing in Your Community
This presentation will highlight how to build a successful HIV testing program in the community. These are not abstract methods, but concrete steps to provide a clear plan on creating an HIV testing program that will ensure more people will have access to free, rapid testing.
Developing Linkage to Comprehensive Prevention Services in an Emergency Department Setting
This presentation will discuss the opportunities for implementing linkage to comprehensive services by assessing populations who are seen in the ED testing for STIs, including syphilis and HIV. We will explore the operations of identifying eligible patients, including our collaborations with the public health department, our Infectious Disease Clinic, and our Title V Clinic. We will highlight what is going well and discuss areas of improvement.
This presentation will also review the successes and challenges of launching a rapid PrEP program in an ED setting.
Implementation of Routine Opt-Out HIV Testing across the University of California-San Diego Health Systems
In 2006, the CDC shared revised guidance recommending HIV testing be provided to individuals 13-64 years of age, regardless of risk, in all health-care settings unless patients opt out of the service. This approach, known as Routine Opt-Out HIV Testing (ROOT), is key in identifying persons with undiagnosed HIV, persons previously testing positive but not engaged in HIV care or virally suppressed, and persons testing negative that could be referred to preventative services.
Integration Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Emergency Medicine: A Single-Center Model at Tampa General Hospital
As part of the Hillsborough Health Equity Plan, a formative research initiative was conducted to increase the uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Black and Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) aged 25–34 in Hillsborough County, Florida. The study explored patient and provider experiences within on-demand care settings, such as urgent care clinics and emergency departments (EDs), where opportunities for PrEP intervention are often missed.
High Retention and Acceptability of Long-Acting Injectable PrEP among Underserved Urban Populations: Findings from a Community-Based Health Center in Newark, NJ.
The North Jersey Community Research Initiative (NJCRI) conducted a retrospective chart review to evaluate real-world utilization of oral and long-acting injectable PrEP (LA-Cabotegravir) among individuals accessing services between 2024 and 2025. NJCRI serves a predominantly Black and Brown, urban population in Newark, NJ, many of whom face housing instability, food insecurity, and limited access to affirming healthcare.
Learning Across Borders: What the U.S. Can Learn from LMIC Contraceptive Rollouts for Injectable PrEP Implementation
The U.S. has approved long-acting injectable PrEP options such as cabotegravir (Apretude) and lenacapavir (Yzugo), yet major challenges remain around equitable access, demand generation, and health-system readiness. This project explores what the United States can learn from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that successfully expanded injectable contraceptives, an intervention with striking parallels to injectable PrEP.
Linking Syphilis Surveillance to HIV Prevention: A Workflow Model to Promote PrEP Uptake in Marginalized Communities in Texas
Since 2018, Texas has faced a steep rise in syphilis cases particularly among marginalized groups such as Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black individuals. These findings are parallel to HIV trends in Texas. This model merges surveillance with proactive prevention and clinical coordination, targeting individuals at heightened HIV risk. Ongoing data collection on patient demographics, barriers, and facilitators will optimize implementation and elevate prevention outcomes in underserved communities.
Scaling PrEP in Women’s Health: Findings from a Pilot on OBGYN Practices in Mississippi
Strengthening OBGYN capacity to integrate PrEP into routine care is critical to reducing HIV incidence and advancing health equity for Black women in Mississippi. Findings will guide a forthcoming statewide, grant-funded initiative to scale PrEP delivery in women’s health settings, supporting the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative’s goals and addressing persistent disparities in HIV prevention access and outcomes.
Beyond the Red Ribbon: Prevention Through the Lens of Pleasure
Beyond the Red Ribbon will allow participants to reimagine HIV/STI prevention and service provision through a sex positive lens. Attendees will develop an understanding of sex positivity and examine the necessity for incorporating an individualized, person-centered approach to sexual health. This presentation aims to enhance service providers’ ability to engage clients/patients in topics such as sexual behavior and expression, non-traditional relationship structures (e.g., polyamory, swinging, and other forms of non-monogamy), and self-care, along with HIV/STI prevention and treatment.
Public-Private Partnerships: A Cost-Saving Model to Efficiently End Multiple Public Health Epidemics
Congenital syphilis is a completely preventable condition that imposes a significant clinical and financial burden on our current strained healthcare system. In response to rising infection rates in Miami-Dade County, Homestead Hospital (HH) implemented an innovative, Electronic Health Record-integrated Syphilis Screening Algorithm in 2019, embedded within its existing routine HIV and Hepatitis C testing infrastructure.