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Grantee Information

Healing BALM of NE Florida (DBA Florida Community Prevention Center) 1303 Jasmine St., Suite 102 Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
(904) 321-4097 (Phone)

The Florida Community Prevention Center is the only agency providing HIV/AIDS coordination and care services to multiple correctional and detention facilities in the region. The agency provides pre-test and post-release after-care services to inmates that include HIV/AIDS testing, counseling and linkages, as well as other services.

Grant Project Information

Abstract

The program’s purpose is to ensure a smooth discharge process that provides continuing medical care for inmates living with HIV/AIDS being released from local correctional facilities in Nassau and Duval Counties in Northeast Florida back into their home communities. In Florida, there is a lack of reintegration services for incarcerated individuals, and a disproportionate percentage of the inmates are ethnic/racial minorities. The project will target 2,100 African-American inmates (males and females) substance abusers and individuals impacted by mental health disorders between the ages of 17-30 years in Duval, Nassau and Baker counties. They plan to implement the following strategies, practices or interventions: identify inmates interested in participating in the Transitional Nurturing Team Initiative and plan for the inmates’ participation, begin the case management and monitoring process by providing services and linking inmates with the program partners in the community and undertake an evaluation of the process from the intake. The expected outcomes of the project include reducing the rate of recidivism, protecting the public and safeguarding the investment in the state correctional institutions in North Florida. The program will evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions by having an HIV Prevention Specialist collect information through the use of questionnaires at certain intervals of time. The questionnaires will include performance measures such as the change in risk behavior of the participants, as well as the current health condition of the participants. The data will be used to evaluate the success of the consumer’s transition and of the TNT program.

OMH objective(s) toward which the project’s results most contribute:

• Increased awareness, education, & outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health & health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health & other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)