Impact of community-based organizations for people living with HIV

Key take-home messages

•  Since the beginning of the epidemic, CBOs have displayed cultural competency and have gained the trust of community members, allowing them to target their services to people living with HIV who are less likely to use mainstream health care services.
• CBOs are able to help “hard-to-reach” populations, ethnic minority youth and men who have sex with men.
• CBOs offer a wide range of services to assist people living with or at risk of HIV, including culturally adapted programs to help people along the HIV care continuum.
• Participants of the Treatment Advocacy program offered at AIDS service organizations across the U.S. exhibit much better antiretroviral adherence rates than non-participants, with an average difference of 15%.
• Clients in Treatment Advocacy programs are more likely to utilize a variety of social services, and as a result have fewer unmet needs.
• Recent research in Ontario has demonstrated the economic value of CBOs, showing that from 1987 to 2011, community-based HIV prevention programs prevented 16,672 new infections and saved the health care system $6.5 billion.

• Population(s)
  • General HIV+ population
• Health Systems
  • Delivery arrangements