Hoosier IAC Scholarship Fund Phase 2

The Black community has been left out of the conversation and the AIDS relief efforts for the past 40 years. In the Black community, the campaign against HIV/AIDS did not receive the same national attention to combat the invidence and prevelance of AIDS in the neighborhoods and communities thoughout our nation. We are seeking to create a bridge between the HIV/AIDS community and the Black church, which is the primary institution for accessing the Black community throughout the nation. We already have this relationship in Indianapolis and we want to build on it. We have the support of 31 pastors in Marion County, who have particicpated in HIV 101 training in March 2021. We want to make this training more widely available. 

In Phase 1 of the Hoosier IAC Scholarship Fund, a group of 21 Hoosiers applied for the scholarship. They became official Hoosier delegates of the United States of America to the International AIDS Conference 2020 (VIRTUAL) in July 2020. At the completion of their participation, they received official membership into the International AIDS Society, Geneva, Switzerland. Several have become community advocates in their neighborhoods and their Indiana counties. The creation of the HISF Scholarship website helped promote the scholarship availability and HIV education (https://www.indianaiac.com/), and will be used in phase 2 to accomplish our objectives. 

The focus of Hoosier IAC Scholarship Fund Phase 2 will be on access of HIV education in the church and surrounding community. HIV awareness is not present throughout the Black community. The End the HIV Epidemic Campaign recognizes the increasing incidence of HIV among the youth and adults in the Black community, who are not connected to HIV information, education, resources and services. When people are connected to these factors, it diminishes the risk of transmission and improves the efforts to confront stigma in the Black community, which has been documented to inhibit persons coming forward to know their HIV status. 

The Broadway Youth Roving Project has been in existence for 12 years. This year, the youth who are the neighborhood rovers will receive HIV101 training to empower them to respond or initiate opportunities for discussions that occur around healthcare. This will include workshops on healthcare disparities and identifying pathways to care. The youth will receive grant awards from the scholarship fund to enable their participation in the program, to provide approprirate refreshments and to allow for meals and conversation with the community. Their acquaintance with HIV through the summer program will be the precursor to the opportunity to become delegates to the International AIDS Conference in 2022 (IAC2022). Scholarship funds will cover all fees associated with being official registered delegates from Indiana to IAC2022. The scholarships will provide support and assistance to other community residents to also be invited to become delegates to IAC2022. The scholarship will allow for pre-orientation workshops with guest presenters, refreshments & meals. Finally, the scholarship will provide for advertising and marketing, distribution of HIV educational and promotional materials for the overall program, including community-wide workshops throughout the year. 

We will do this through:

• Introducing the roving youth program to the community. In every neighborhood, young people would be invited to join the youth program. The youth program operates during the summer, where youth gather daily and walk through the neighborhood, saying hello to the presence of other neighbors and children, leading to meaningful discussion on issues
• Presenting HIV 101 Education to the rovers and the community
• We will develop a program enabling peer to peer HIV youth counseling
• We will develop a program of HIV 101 education to members of the Broadway congregation to support the youth's activities and facilitate the links and connections to their HIV roving outreach 
• Returning to school, youth ambassadors throughout the academic year will be invited to monthly parties connecting our young people to young people from other nations which acquaint them to international HIV initiatives
• All of this is in preparation for providing scholarships for the young people and other community members to attend the International AIDS Conference in 2022 or 2023, as designated by the International AIDS Society

Black residents are 6x more likely and Hispanic residents are 4x more likely than White residents to contract HIV in Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood, which is located in Marion County, Indianapolis, Indiana. The CDC has identified Marion County a “hotspot” compared to the other 7,000 counties in the US. Access to healthcare in the communities of color is a major factor in decreasing the presence of HIV. This project approaches the systemic issues of racism by leveraging the intersection of trust between the Black church and the community members. It is the history of relationships between the church and communities throughout the nation that has made the greatest contribution to diminishing stigma and hate of LGBTQ+ people. Our youth population holds the key to the greatest promise to end the HIV epidemic.