FACT SHEET

"Report to the Secretary on HIV/AIDS in Racial and Ethnic Communities"

Report to the Secretary on HIV/AIDS in Racial and Ethnic Communities," contains more than 70 actions steps which the Federal government could implement in order to address and enhance its efforts to meet the HIV prevention, service and research needs of racial and ethnic minority populations (Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders). This Report, developed by a community/federal workgroup, focused on issues such as inclusion, representation, data needs, infrastructure development, and technical assistance.

Action steps range from providing greater information on current activities, increasing the participation of minorities in program development, including more minorities on grant review panels, developing common definitions for federal terminology (e.g., minority community-based organization, outreach, cultural competency), evaluating current programs to determine their impact on racial/ethnic communities, to greater coordination of efforts across agency lines. Enhanced information sharing with the community on current and planned programs is addressed throughout the document.

Developed over the past two years, the Report is an outgrowth of recommendations made by community individuals during the Racial/Ethnic Institutes sponsored by the Office of Minority Health during the 1996 U.S. Conference on AIDS. Since then, a working group of 24 community-based individuals and representatives from each of the major Federal agencies addressing HIV (AHCPR, CDC, FDA, HRSA, IHS, NIH, SAMHSA), has engaged in an open dialogue and partnership to develop specific action steps, time lines and identify lead agencies to respond to the recommendations. More than 165 recommendations were submitted for consideration by the Institutes. The Working Group reduced the number of recommendations to 75 focusing equally on each of the four racial/ethnic groups.

The Report enhances other Federal efforts to address HIV in racial and ethnic populations including the Congressional Black Caucus Initiative, HHS Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health, and CDC's People of Color Initiative. Originally scheduled to be released as an official DHHS document called the National Minority HIV Plan, the Report was submitted directly to the Secretary on February 16, 1999 as the "Report to the Secretary on HIV/AIDS In Racial and Ethnic Communities." The Working Group released it without going through official clearance so that it could affect the development of the other Departmental activities in a timely manner.

OMH will continue to work with the agencies and the Office of the Secretary to monitor implementation of the action steps in the Report and to develop "report back" mechanisms to the community.