Community Approaches to Reducing Sexually Transmitted Diseases (CARS)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the availability of Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 funds for a cooperative agreement with organizations with demonstrated experience and capacity of implementing community engagement methods (e.g. community-based participatory research) and multi-sector partnerships to promote personal health, advance community wellness, influence health behavior and practices, and reduce STI disparities. In accordance with the Healthy People 2020 Goals for the nation, this FOA focuses on reducing the proportion of adolescents and young adults with Chlamydia trachomatis infections, reducing Chlamydia rates among females aged 15-44 years, reducing gonorrhea rates, reducing sustained domestic transmission of primary and secondary syphilis, congenital syphilis, GC incidence, and reducing the proportion of young adults with genital herpes infection due to herpes simplex type 2. The new FOA provides support in five focus areas. These focus areas are: (1) implementation of community engagement methods (e.g. community-based participatory research) to achieve health equity; (2) identification and implementation of systems and environmental change strategies that (a) promote personal health and support healthy behaviors and (b) facilitate community-clinical linkages to build support for interventions to prevent and reduce STI disparities; (3) enhancement and sustainability of partnerships; (4) support for communication strategies to promote STD program successes and leverage additional resources for STI control and prevention; and (5) evaluation of the efficacy of this approach and intervention implementation. Measureable outcomes are:1. Community Engagement: Community members actively participate in and are satisfied with Community Advisory Board (CAB); perceived power among CAB members; community social determinants of health priority are identified; community involved in design of interventions to reduce STD disparities; increased linkages with and access to target groups.2. Identification and implementation of system and environmental strategies: Existing clinical resources identified; community priorities and effective community-designed interventions are implemented, evaluated, and sustained; positivity and treatment rates from community events and STD screenings are documented; decrease in exposure to social disorder (e.g., presence of trash, lack of community cooperation); decrease in risky behavior; decrease in STD disparities;3. Multi-sectorial partnerships: New and stable partnerships are formed; partner resources and influence are used to implement, evaluate, and community-designed interventions;4. Communication: Increased awareness of STD disparities and personal health issues through mixed-modal communication methods including social media; increased access to and use of community health resources and support services by target groups most impacted by STD disparities; increased access to and use of educational opportunities by target groups; implementation of effective health equity and personal health communication methods.This FOA is designed to begin on September 30, 2017 and replaces FOA PS14-1406