2022 Capacity Building Grant Partners!

Congratulations to our 2022 Capacity Building Grant Partners!

The Emory COMPASS Coordinating Center established the Capacity Building Grant in 2020 to support AIDS service organizations and community-based organizations (CBOs) that prioritize HIV/AIDS prevention or care services. This grant supports activities focused on growing organizations to their next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity. 2022 marks the third annual Capacity Building Grant cycle, and we are excited to introduce our newest COMPASS partners!

The Reginald & Dionne Smith Foundation
Project Overview:
In an effort to more effectively advocate for heterosexual Black men and women, the RDSF will train staff, board members, and contracted individuals to be proficient in using the software tools our agency will use to strengthen our organizations internal management, operations, communications and financial administration. The RDSF will train board and staff members on Board responsibilities and financial stewardship strategies and how to use Quickbooks and how to better employ generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) to maintain financial fidelity. The RDSF will create communications protocols and responsiveness strategies to help ensure capacity to better carry out our mission and vision.

Here’s To Life, Inc.
Project Overview:
The proposed Tele-Behavioral Health Project is specifically designed to meet the emerging digital and online communication capacity building needs of Here’s to Life, Inc.’s (HTL) current infrastructure. In addition, the COVID challenges have made developing a digital footprint more important than ever and creating more safe and convenient methods to engage our clients. HTL’s vision is to Bridge the CBO Digital Divide, HTL will assess our current processes areas of communications internal and external (i.e. clients, social media) Engagement, and Management Technology Systems.

House of Serenity, Inc.
Project Overview:
House of Serenity, Inc. (HOS) will incorporate what they learned from the PowerUp Institute to manage their Building Foundations Project. The Building Foundations project will focus on two capacity building areas: Finance/administrations and communications. The project will allow HOS to develop a more accurate overall budget, utilize a dashboard to communicate financial updates, and engage board staff as well as staff in stewarding finances. The project will allow HOS to build their financial management capacity to maintain a strong infrastructure and enhance sustainability. The Building Foundation project will also implement a communications strategy plan that will include website development, social media plan and the blueprint of the Queens 2 Queens social media campaign that will focus on HIV prevention for black women and trans women of color. HOS Executive Leadership and Board will marry the organization’s strategic goals with its communication plan to drive the agency mission.

The Pride Center at Equality Park
Project Overview:
The Center will utilize this opportunity to bring awareness to the organization, staff and community regarding trauma, then increase sensitivity to trauma, become more responsive to trauma, and ultimately functioning at a trauma-informed level of care framework. This effort will attempt to mitigate the detrimental psychological and health impact that trauma has within the community. By working to reduce trauma, we also will decrease the number of new cases of HIV infection, and will support those living with HIV/AIDS to achieve a greater degree of wellness and well-being with better long-term health outcomes. The Center believes recruiting and retaining top talent is critical to organizational success. Well-trained staff who are given the skills to engage with the community holistically are better equipped to serve needs and fill gaps in services. The Center will engage a Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainer to provide MI training to all HIV prevention staff. At the organizational level, The Center will engage a Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) trainer to provide TIC training and development for the organization. Combined, the MI and TIC training will not only increase organizational capacity, but will enable The Center to better serve the community.

ASHwell
Project Overview:
The goal of this project is to improve ASHwell’s ability to measure our impact on our target population, changes in public health, geographic area, and the social determinants of health. To achieve this goal, ASHwell will first conduct staff focus groups, collect client surveys, assess peer organizations’ use of impact and evaluation data, and take additional steps to determine our agency’s impact goals and organizational logic model, including measurements to support impact goals. Our agency will also conduct a thorough assessment of our current data and evaluation system, including hardware and software, and create a report outlining recommendations for system upgrades and enhancements. ASHwell intends to partner on this project with consultant MEASURE Austin, a local community-led nonprofit whose mission is to provide quantitative information as a tool to bridge divisions and empower communities to solve complex social problems.

San Antonio AIDS Foundation
Project Overview:
Communications are an essential element of public health and critical to sustaining an organization. This project will build the capacity of the San Antonio AIDS Foundation Communications and Outreach programs through a focus on youth and young adult populations. This effort builds upon San Antonio AIDS Foundation’s (SAAF) broader strategic goals which are to build capacity through diversification of our donor base, expand services and provide outreach to youth. In utilizing tools most commonly used among the youth and young adult population, SAAF will build a stronger presence in the community and encourage this group to become part of something larger than themselves. Often, young people don’t see themselves as benefactors. This outreach effort will engage more individuals at levels that work best for them. In so doing, we will strengthen the agency’s capacity to serve a broader community. The SAAF will focus on fundraising programs, education and outreach events, and connect these to sexual health and wellness services at SAAF while working to overcome stigma and other barriers to care.

HYPE to Empower
Project Overview:
HYPE will engage in comprehensive strategic planning to define an organizational vision for impact, objectives, and activities for achieving this vision, and a communication and resource development plan to accomplish defined strategic objectives. This process is driven by a Steering Committee that includes representation from clients, community members, key volunteers, staff, and consultants. Deliverables from this process include a community-informed, comprehensive understanding of community needs and gaps, organizational and community capacity, and a clear pathway to drive organizational activities over a to-be-determined over a period of time. This work will draw on HYPE’s history and unique position in the community addressing intersecting barriers faced by people living with HIV/AIDS who also have other marginalized identities, especially Black men who are gay, bisexual, or MSM; Black women; Latinx and Hispanic people who are LGBTQ; and transgender and non-binary individuals. It will also ensure ongoing commitment to the Meaningful Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS (MIPA) that is the foundation for HYPE’s work.

CrescentCare
Project Overview:
CrescentCare requests funding for capacity building to implement agency-wide staff training on racial equity and diversity. CrescentCare underwent an equity audit as part of a racial equity initiative in 2021 and identified a number of areas where staff training is needed to improve the overall equity competencies of staff. The majority of the individuals CrescentCare serves and approximately half of the patients are people of color and this training will help to improve the care provided to them as well as improve staff interactions and internal operations. A comprehensive training program is proposed that will be delivered in-person to all staff members.

Latinos Salud, Inc.
Project Overview:
Latinos Salud accounting practices have not kept pace with our agency’s growing size and complexity. As a relatively young agency, we built systems designed to capitalize on strengths and efficiency necessary for current operations. This grant will provide much needed funds for a needed part-time accountant and increase Latinos Salud’s capacity to effectively serve their community.