FLORIDA: Community Groups to Receive $10M in Grants for HIV/AIDS, Other Health Issues
The Florida Department of Health plans to distribute $10 million in grants to community groups targeting numerous health care issues, including HIV/AIDS, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. The funding, which will extend through 2002, was allocated in response to a "cascade of statistics that show stark [health care] disparities" across racial groups, including studies showing that African Americans are "six times more likely [than whites] to die of AIDS." According to Florida Secretary of Health Dr. Robert Brooks, "These communities will now have additional resources to help stimulate the development of community and neighborhood-based coordinated approaches." The following Florida organizations will receive HIV/AIDS-related grants:
- Broward Community and Family Health Center, Fort Lauderdale: $102,083 this year and $175,000 next year for HIV outreach and peer counseling to blacks and Hispanics.
- New Direction Institute, Ft. Lauderdale: $100,000 this year for HIV counseling and testing in the faith-based community.
- Economic Opportunity Family Health Center, Miami: $102,083 this year and $175,000 next year to offer HIV testing and counseling through a mobile blood unit.
- MOVERS Agency, Miami-Dade: $102,083 this year and $175,000 next year for HIV outreach and education in Opa-Locka.
- Haitian American Foundation, Miami-Dade: $102,083 this year and $175,000 next year for HIV prevention services to the Haitian community.
- Center for Haitian Studies: $30,333 this year and $52,000 next year for HIV testing and counseling targeted to Haitians and Hispanics ages 22 to 45.
- Center for Information and Orientation, Miami-Dade: $100,000 for HIV/AIDS counseling and testing.
- Hope House of the Palm Beaches: $100,000 to target blacks and Haitians using HIV intervention programs (Singer, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 10/26).