Office of Minority Health

Volunteers of America Bay Area, Inc.
1601 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda CA 94502-3029
(510) 473-0500 (Phone)
(510) 473-9225 (Fax)
http://www.voaba.org

Volunteers of America Bay Area, Inc. (VOABA) is a community-based ministry that aims to empower and transform the lives of those most in need and create practical solutions for individuals to achieve self-sufficiency.

Rebuilding Broken Bridges
$1,896,944
John Bailey
(510) 473-0500
jbailey@voaba.org

The Rebuilding Broken Bridges project will address the fragmentation and lack of accessibility of health care and social services, resulting from recent release from incarceration, with a family-centered, integrated health and social service network. The project targets African-American and Hispanic men between the ages of 36 and 60, and women between the ages of 24 and 60 who have been recently released from incarceration, as well as their partners and dependents. To this end, VOABA has partnered with AIDS Health Foundation/Magic Johnson Clinic, Alameda County Medical Center/Highland Campus, Alameda County Food Bank, East Bay Community Law Center and others to create a network of medical and social services. Services include HIV testing and treatment, domestic violence assistance, employment training and placement and housing assistance. VOABA will work with participants to develop individual life plans and refer them to appropriate services and will also engage in HIV/AIDS outreach and education programs focused on the young dependents of the target population in order to elicit positive behavioral changes and break the generational cycles of unhealthy behaviors that increase the risk of HIV infection. The intended outcomes of this project include increased access to medical and social services, decreased incidence of HIV/AIDS, improved health outcomes, increased knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and improved health behaviors. In order to determine if such outcomes are reached, data will be collected regularly from referral forms and program intake forms.

OMH objective(s) towards which the project's results most contribute (check all that apply):

• Increased awareness, education, and outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health and 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)

Key (not more than five) Healthy People 2010 objectives or subobjectives (by number and name) towards which your project's results most contribute (see Appendix 3 of OMH's Evaluation Planning Guidelines at).

• HP 2020 3: Increase the proportion of persons with a usual PCP;
• HP 2020 1: Reduce AIDS among adults and adolescents;
• HP 2020 2: Reduce the number of new AIDS cases among adolescent and adult men who have sex with men;
• HP 2020 3: Reduce the number of new AIDS cases among adolescents and adults who inject drugs;
• HP 2020 5: Increase the proposal of substance abuse treatment facilities that offer.