Actual language from a 40-page narrative grant application to the CDC

Grant written by Write It For Me with intensive input from client

** Result: Award of $1.39 million over 5 years **

Grant Application

Overall Summary from "Justification of Need" section (Needs Statement) :

Residents of New York’s Nassau and Suffolk Counties are suffering from a specific unmet need for mobile confidential HIV counseling, rapid testing, and referral (CTR). Because of a grossly disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS transmission among intravenous drug users (IDUs)/ substance users in this geographic region, and due to this region’s insurmountable deficiency of public transportation, traditional fixed-location HIV testing has been largely inaccessible to—and thus ineffective for—the swelling Long Island IDU/substance use community and other associated high-risk behavioral communities. Rapid testing in non-clinical, street outreach settings, using a special mobile van/r.v. tailored and adapted by [Client Name Omitted*] to deliver confidential, non-judgmental testing and immediate results along with counseling and referral, is a viable solution that has received strong endorsement from New York State and local health departments, as well as from the target population. The proposed intervention meets our target population’s needs and the needs articulated in the New York State Prevention Planning Group’s Comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan.

Almost 50% of all HIV transmissions/infections occurring in these two southeastern New York counties continues to happen through IDU behavior—compared to the CDC-reported U.S. national average of 25% ( NYSDOH, 2001 ) . The link between IDU/substance use and HIV infection is visible and growing on L.I. More than 2,602 people have become infected in Nassau/Suffolk Counties just through IDU ( NYSDOH, 2001 ). Since most HIV transmission originates with people who are unaware of their HIV+ status, testing IDUs is an especially vital need to fill. Consistent with the CDC’s Advancing HIV Prevention (AHP) initiative and with the core elements of Program Announcement 04064’s guidelines for CTR and rapid testing in non-medical settings, this [Client Name Omitted*] project proposal presents a viable way to reduce the spread of HIV in southeastern New York. Our project will fill the further-described unmet need in a focused manner, backed by experience.