SUNY-Albany HIV Prevention Conference To Address Faith-Based Organizations, Health Care in Minority Communities

An HIV/AIDS prevention conference addressing faith-based organizations and health care providers in the black and Hispanic communities is scheduled to be held this week at the State University of New York-Albany, the Albany Times Union reports. The Capitalize on Community conference, titled "Faith-based Institutions and Voluntary Organizations in HIV Prevention in the Black Community," also will mark the beginning of a five-year research and community outreach project aimed at improving HIV prevention efforts in the region. HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects the black community in Albany, according to the Times Union. While blacks comprise about 28% of the total population, they make up more than 40% of residents ages 25 to 29 living with HIV/AIDS and half of the HIV/AIDS cases among people ages 30 to 39, according to the New York Department of Health. Comparable figures for Hispanics were not available, according to the Times Union. The goal of the conference is "to get a handle on the disconnect of faith-based organizations, health care providers and the HIV/AIDS community to see how these players network and how they facilitate or impede the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention," Hayward Horton, an associate professor of sociology at SUNY-Albany and the founder of Capitalize on Community, said. According to Johanne Morne, who directs an HIV education program at the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center, the conference also aims to promote discussion of HIV prevention and treatment issues. "If we can get comfortable with those conversations, then we can get comfortable with adopting those (safe) behaviors in our lives," she said (Willingham, Albany Times Union, 9/28).