About the Grant CARS is a grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded to the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), with sub-contracts to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Center for Child and Community Health Research (CCHR) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The goal of this program is to mobilize a community coalition to reduce the rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea among adolescents and young adults in Baltimore City. Specifically, strategies for structural change that will lead to long-term, sustainable reductions in chlamydia and gonorrhea risk and increases in chlamydia and gonorrhea testing are sought. This work was funded through the CDC grant “Community Approaches to Reducing STIs” (U22 PS004541-01).
Collaborators: Baltimore City Health Department The Baltimore City Health Department considers sexually transmitted infections and diseases to be an important health issue within their organization. The HIV / STI Prevention Program focuses on efforts and activities that prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infection across Baltimore City. The program operates two categorical STI Clinics. These clinics provide testing, diagnosis, and treatment for most commonly occurring STIs. The clinics also provide family planning services, Ryan White primary care services for HIV positive clients, and hepatitis B immunization through the Vaccine for Children’s program. The programs provide services for more than 30,000 patient visits per year. In addition, the program operates an outreach testing program that provides testing for syphilis and HIV in areas of high morbidity throughout Baltimore City. The outreach staff work out of mobile vans in areas where disease transmission is likely to be relatively high or to have recently occurred. The program also provides health education services to schools and community groups upon request. Health educators are available to provide presentations on STIs and HIV. Several program staff are faculty of the STI/HIV Prevention Training Center, which provides STI education to hundreds of health care providers each year.
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