The AIDS Project of Central Iowa is dedicated to reaching those individuals at high-risk for acquiring HIV, including the African American and Latino communities. In the past few years both of these communities have shown increasing numbers in regards to new HIV infections. Our Be the Cure program includes trained culturally competent staff, including a bi-lingual individual to assist our Spanish speaking clientele, to conduct outreach in several community-based settings.

Be the Cure focuses on providing free, confidential HIV and Hepatitis C testing, HIV/AIDS education, risk reduction planning on making safer choices, and peer-based interventions. Our goal is to reach high-risk individuals in order to prevent the spread of HIV in Iowa.

Be the Cure’s outreach efforts include comprehensive group and face-to-face HIV/AIDS interventions. We work with several local agencies in order to provide HIV/AIDS education, counseling and testing. Such agencies include: Creative Visions, Urban Dreams, Oakridge, Neighborhood Health Initiative, La Clinica, Family Violence Center, New Directions, Lighthouse Church, Salsa Night at The Saddle and other predominately African American and Latino agencies. Outreach collaborations have been key in helping us reach both of these communities. We also provide outreach at many African American or Latino centered events such as the African American Women’s Health Summit, Juneteenth, Make Me a World, The Black Expo, Latino Heritage Festival, National Latino Testing Day and World AIDS Day.