Southern Arizona Aids Foundation

Hiv care: the care services department ensures that people living with hiv/aids have access to the services they need to maintain optimal health and live as independently and safely as possible. Saaf continues to provide case management, medical case management, housing, psychosocial support, and other support services. Care services programs are grouped into three primary areas: case management, support services, and housing services.of all the people served last year, 95% were low, very low, or extremely low income, with 56% living below the federal poverty level. Due to the ongoing economic conditions, the covid-19 pandemic, and the stress of living with limited incomes, the demand remained high for basic support services including housing, food, transportation, emergency rent and utility assistance, as well as essential medical services including dental care and medical benefits management.saaf provided services to 1,674 people living with hiv/aids and their household members in Southern Arizona including pima, cochise, santa cruz, graham, and greenlee counties. Of these, 161 were new clients to saaf.case management services- case management provided needs assessments, the development of care and action plans, and provision of or referral to necessary services. Case managers supported clients by linking them to medical care, behavioral health, substance abuse services, and other necessary social service programs.support services- complementary therapies- dental services (provided statewide except for maricopa and pinal counties)- food and nutrition services, including the food for life program and the food pantry, ensure distribution, harvest days, emergency meals- holiday project- medication benefits management for those enrolled through the affordable care act federally facilitated marketplace's (provided statewide)- medical benefits cost sharing assistance for those enrolled in statewide adap program - support groups- transportation services- hygiene/cleaning supplies- other personal support serviceshousing services- saaf provides emergency shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing to people living with hiv.- saaf provided over 857 persons (including households) with housing services to prevent homelessness, assist with rent/mortgage/utility assistance, and sustain housing, using our housing first model approach.housing case management services are provided to support clients in being successful in their housing, referring to other social services, and linking to hiv medical care.

Lgbtq+youth programs:- youth empowerment leadership & lifeskills (yell): substance abuse education/reduction and coalition building. The yell program conducted a workshop with mariposa community health center, 7th annual opioid misuse prevention symposium, greater tucson leadership, tucson pride festival, and wellness day at city high. We continue our programing at the following schools: city high school, edge himmel park high school, edge northwest high school, and the las artes arts and education center. Yell has served 67 youth participants this fiscal year. - Arizona life links for youth (ally): suicide prevention, lgbtq youth, arts initiative with the university of Arizona museum of art. The program continues to provide programing at the following schools: city high school, edge himmel park high school, and edge northwest high school. Ally has served 331 youth participants this fiscal year. - spectrum: spectrum is a program collaboration with sirow, the university of Arizona's southwest institute for research on women. Through this collaboration saaf provides inclusive comprehensive sexual health education and hiv prevention groups, and individual prevention navigation services for lgbtq+ youth and their allies. - eon youth lounge: through eon programming, saaf provides education, empowerment, support, and a safe space for lgbtq+ youth. This year saw a change in program format to meet more youth where they are at and get into the community more. This resulted in more community outreach and collaborating with various community partners to launch satellite sites throughout different compass points of the greater tucson metropolitan area. Eon also has developed a close relationship to cholla high school's gender and sexuality alliance club conducting regular programming with the youth that attend and offering capacity building support with staff's training from glsen arizona.for this fiscal year, eon saw: - 110 unduplicated youthand distributed: - 108 pieces of clothing - 578 pieces of non-perishable food - 248 pieces of hygiene supplies - 35 hot meals- link, sexual violence prevention & education program: link provides education and skills-building to youth and young adults regarding healthy relationships and how to prevent violence in intimate partner relationships. 81 individuals received sexual violence prevention education from link's safe dates curriculum and 147 individuals received one day workshops/trainings on sexual violence prevention. Lgbtq staff continued facilitating the safe dates curriculum at two local high schools and one g.e.d school. The curriculum link uses is safe dates and was facilitated in person at edge himmel high school, rincon high school, and the las artes youth art program. Link program staff joined monthly meetings for a family advocacy research group, a sexual assault response team, and the Arizona child abuse and exploitation prevention coalition to build relationships with other organizations and plan community events. Joining these groups and coalitions allows the program to find ways for how the community can bring the sexual violence resources together in one area for survivors to have better access and awareness. Link staff participated in multiple tabling events for tucson pride festival, saaf's Aids walk, tucson meet yourself, the tucson sexual assault awareness event, and the procession of little angels. These community events and collaborations allow saaf's link program to reach more community members and organizations to build new partnerships for sexual violence prevention and awareness.adult programs:- anti-violence program (avp): case management and emergency shelter was provided through the avp program for lgbtq survivors of violence. These services include safety planning, goal planning, basic needs, emergency and transitional housing, advocacy, and support navigating the legal system.

Prevention and clinic: saaf's prevention department uses empowering harm reduction approaches to cultivate healthier communities. With passion, compassion, humility, and creativity we make a difference. We create sex-positive, safer spaces, and provide culturally responsive services that are client-centered. We embrace and respect our communities through a flexible, non-judgmental approach. Never forgetting we are the communities we serve; we use our energy and expertise to foster social equity. We cultivate collaborative relationships to achieve comprehensive services. We are a team. We are supportive of each other -- fiercely advocating for and with our communities. We are not afraid to push buttons. We don't wait for change. We initiate it! Prevent! Promote! Protect! Prevention services targeted populations at increased risk of hiv infection or transmission, hepatitis c infection, substance use, sexual assault, and suicide. Communities served included gay/bisexual men and other men who have sex with men (msm); men and women who inject drugs, have a history of injection drug use, are currently in drug treatment, and/or have a history of incarceration; youth, including young people of color and lgbtq youth; lgbt community members experiencing violence and harassment, and people living with hiv/aids. Saaf provided effective behavioral interventions, public health strategies and health education and risk reduction activities that included outreach, individual-level interventions, group-level interventions, community-level interventions, health education/public information, and social media strategies. Prevention programs conducted the following activities through the implementation of the above initiatives:- one-on-one support, risk-reduction counseling, syringe access services, and/or resource and referral services- education, skills building, and/or training through the implementation of individual-level interventions, group-level interventions, community education workshops, and social media messaging.- outreach services in which safer sex materials were distributed during outreach, community education, and programmatic events. Hiv counseling and testing was provided by trained saaf staff. During the covid-19 pandemic, testing was available in person only at saaf. Saaf did begin an at-home hiv testing initiative. Confidential hiv testing using 4th generation hiv rapid testing technologies was available. People received hiv rapid testing services at saaf, hepatitis c rapid testing was also made available to people who inject drugs or have a history of injection drug use and hcv rapid tests were conducted at saaf. Testing- pima, pinal, maricopa counties- screening, testing, and referral- alere determine combo test (20 minutes)- insti test (1 minute)- oraquick hcv test (20 minutes)- chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis (labs, 5 days)- saaf testing monday-friday pre-exposure prophylaxis (prep)/hep c/ substance use navigation services- pima county- for people at-risk of hiv transmission- for people who are living with hep c and want to get into treatment.- for people who have substance use issues and want to get into treatment.- education and support- readiness assessments, benefits coordination, and referrals to medical providers- prep lab support (maricopa county only) syringe access program (sap): monday, wednesday, and friday- pima county- access to hiv and hep c testing- access to harm reduction supplies and hygiene items- build relationships with staff and access health related information, including options for substance use treatment options.- provide harm reduction supplies throughout the state of Arizona to other syringe services programs (ssps) saaf health clinicsaaf health is currently licensed for in-person visits and sees about 125 patients monthly. We are coming up in our first full year being licensed and the patient growth is going well. We have been doing telehealth visits since april 2022 and have had over 1300 visits. The clinic has approximately 125 prep patients that use our providers and consistently get refills for 130 other patients through our contract telehealth providers. In june, we launched an initiative to increase testing for hcv and we have cured 16 individuals and currently have 4 on treatment. The 340b program is growing and has doubled our gross revenue from year one to two. This coming year we will focus on clinic growth for in-person visits and start the process of getting the clinic credentialed with cms. The pharmacy has started to be built out and should be open summer 2024