The Sacramento-based CARES Foundation has provided a grant of $83,840 in support of the Center’s HIV prevention and treatment efforts.
The CARES Foundation provides grants to organizations in the Sacramento area that serve the needs of people with HIV/AIDS. For the last several years, the foundation has supported the growth of our HIV Prevention and Equity program—taking HIV prevention services from a handful of volunteers to a fully-staffed program that provides testing, prevention services, and support to hundreds of people each year.
We estimate that there are over 300 in Sacramento County who have acquired HIV and don’t know it. A hugely disproportionate number of these new infections are among homeless and marginalized LGBTQ youth of color who feel forced into survival sex and human trafficking. Most primary care physicians and medical staff lack training on LGBTQ cultural competencies and are ill-equipped to ask the right questions and treat their patients with the dignity and respect they deserve. As a result, many young people and/or trans people do not feel comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual activities to their doctor and are not being tested or offered prevention information on biomedical prevention strategies (PrEP) as required by AB 2640.
The CARES Foundation grant will enable the Center to expand outreach to rural areas, distribute more than 50,000 condoms, educate primary care healthcare providers on biomedical HIV prevention strategies, and connect to ever-increasing numbers high-risk young people. By leveraging the trusting relationships we have with LGBTQ youth and adults, the Center is poised to make a greater impact in the spread of HIV in the Sacramento region than ever before. We will be one step closer to the shared vision of the CARES Foundation and the Center: A generation free of HIV/AIDS in the Sacramento region.
