Our Role in the Community

         Over the past ten years, we have been extremely successful in identifying, recruiting and including participants and collaborators from both the African American and Hispanic communities in Montgomery County. In delivering HIV and substance abuse prevention services, we have collaborated with many community-based, county and state organizations and programs. As an organization, we have established ongoing relationships with a variety of local programs that serve the community, including homeless shelters, substance abuse and addiction treatment programs, vocational training, rehabilitation programs and work site settings.

Collaboration with other community-based institutions and organizations have been an integral part of our success. Partnerships with a wide array of groups have helped to provide resources for training staff and conducting HIV/AIDS prevention presentations as well as keeping us involved in community health events.

One of our collaborators, Head Start of Montgomery County, has provided us with access to their 900 families who are enrolled in their programs each year. Single women of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds primarily head these families. As part of the parenting program provided by Head Start, our Project H.O.P.E. program is instrumental in providing a comprehensive parenting and family-strengthening curriculum to the women by teaching mothers how to talk to their children about HIV/AIDS and safer sex practices.

We also work extensively with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (MC-DHHS) by responding to requests for HIV/AIDS prevention, and providing feedback and data to the Montgomery County Health Department. We also collaborate with the Montgomery County Adult Addiction Services (MC-AAS) regarding drug rehabilitative services. In the past, we have provided services to Montgomery County Public Schools' teen pregnancy program in Montgomery Blair High School and conducted annual HIV/AIDS awareness training to recruits of Montgomery County's Conservation Corps.

While building a strong presence in the community, we have built a number of collaborative relationships with other organizations, including:

• Office of Substance Abuse and Addiction and some of its women's programs
  
  
• The HIV/AIDS Coalition of the African American Health Initiative - where parents were trained on how to communicate with their children about HIV and substance abuse
  
  
• Whitman Walker Clinic - to conduct outreach regarding HIV antibody testing
  
  
• Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services - provides support for our ongoing projects, as well as critical data on the incidence of substance abuse and HIV/AIDS
  
  
• Department of Substance Abuse Prevention - to obtain materials for community presentations
  
  
• State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's AIDS Administration - to conduct street outreach to youths and young adults with real-life stories of persons challenged by HIV/AIDS
  
  
• Montgomery County Community College - to conduct HIV/AIDS outreach at college health fairs
  
  
• Pilgrim Baptist Church and a host of other local churches who are concerned about the growing number of HIV cases within their congregations
  
  
• City of Rockville - Community Services Division
  
  
• Montgomery County Branch of the NAACP
  
  
• Carroll Avenue and Quebec Terrace Community Centers
  
  
• Lincoln Park Community Center
  
  
• Montgomery Housing Authority
  
  
• Community Ministry of Rockville
  
  
• Several homeless shelters, including Dorothy Day Place and Sophia House - to provide HIV prevention services to their residents.