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Date of Report: 11/01/2004
Source: Delta Region AETC
The Delta Region AIDS Education and Training Center (Delta AETC) has contracted with NO/AIDS Task Force (NATF), a community-based organization in New Orleans, to provide training programs for healthcare support service professionals (HSSP).
Together, the two agencies have developed a plan for longitudinal technical assistance to increase the capacity of NATF to train HSSPs. Delta utilized a train-the-trainer approach and other mentoring activities to develop the training capacity of NATF.
The initial work plan aimed to:
 | Identify target audience(s) |
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| Learn about existing training opportunities in the community |
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| Understand existing HSSP training models |
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| Create and disseminate needs assessment |
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| Perform focused individual interviews with key agencies |
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| Facilitate formative group meetings with all targeted agencies |
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| Identify experts for train-the-trainer component |
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| Develop core curriculum reflecting community needs |
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A needs assessment revealed that across minority populations, there were requests for education to build successful relationships with clients--specifically, effective engagement strategies, appropriate boundaries, strategies to move clients to self-sufficiency, cultural competency, communication techniques and conflict resolution.
Representatives from each minority agency were grouped by discipline, and asked to identify topics and colleagues in the community with expertise in the training categories; the experts were then paired with less experienced HSSPs in a train-the-trainer program. HSSPs from the targeted agencies were involved in all stages of program development to ensure that the content reflected the expressed needs of the community.
Evaluation methodology
Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) trainings had very high overall participant satisfaction (90-99%) for content, logistics, presenters, quality, and usefulness of information. Findings indicated positive pretest to posttest changes in each of the designated areas and 99.9% positive change for individual questions.
Addressing unmet training needs
Delta AETC's MAI project fills the gap of the unmet training needs of HSSPs working in minority AIDS service organizations. No other funding specifically targets minority HSSPs and provides access to professional level training and in-house technical assistance. MAI funding allows for training across all Titles and creates collaborations among agencies that have not traditionally worked together. This training builds the capacity of minority agencies by pairing HSSPs with experts in the field through the train-the-trainer paradigm. The knowledge and skills of less experienced HSSPs are enhanced and they, in turn, become the experts in their agencies.
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