CAI funded as a national training center for HIV prevention

New York, NY – Cicatelli Associates Inc. (CAI) has been awarded a national cooperative agreement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to operate a National HIV Classroom Learning Center (NCLC) with the mission of strengthening the country’s HIV prevention workforce and to accelerate progress towards ending the AIDS epidemic. Under this agreement, the largest ever funded for HIV capacity building prevention, CAI will conduct nationwide state of the art training programs in the hardest hit jurisdictions and design new HIV prevention and treatment curricula to continuously update the country’s HIV workforce.

The National HIV Classroom Learning Center will ensure the dissemination of knowledge, skills and competencies to implement public health strategies to end the HIV epidemic, such as trainings on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication that when taken daily, prevents new HIV infections. The NCLC, which began operations on April 1, 2019 supports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “End the Epidemic – Plan for America” which seeks to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. within 10 years. “This funding advances our mission to use the transformative power of education and research to foster a more aware, healthy, compassionate and equitable world,” said Barbara Cicatelli, CAI’s founder and CEO.

The National Classroom Learning Center will strengthen the capacity and improve the performance of CDC-funded staff at state and local health departments, community-based organizations (CBOs) and healthcare providers. CAI is well positioned to meet the needs of staff working in the field with offices in some of the communities hit hardest by HIV – Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City. “We welcome the opportunity to work with the CDC in ensuring that those involved in the national response receive trainings in the most up to date HIV prevention and treatment strategies” said Dr. Tony Jimenez, Project Director and Principal Investigator for the Training Center. “We will use adult learning principles, collect quality data, and culturally appropriate and dynamic educational tools to design and conduct the courses for providers who serve people with HIV and populations at greatest risk for HIV infection”.

For more information, contact:  Tony Jimenez, MD at 212.594.7741 ext. 209 or tony@dev.caiglobal.org