Training and Professional Development Opportunities

The Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health has extensive experience working with organizations to provide training, technical assistance, and capacity building. If you would like the Center to provide one or more of these services for your organization, please contact Dr. Beatrice Krauss at bkrauss@hunter.cuny.edu. Trainings for individuals are not available at this time.

• Clients: Clients have included educators; health care, prevention and social service providers; trainers; criminal justice workers; community leaders; caregivers; and family members (broadly defined) of those facing serious or prevalent urban health threats, such as HIV, substance use, tobacco smoking, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

• Sites: Trainings have been held at the Center, and at other Hunter and City University of New York (CUNY) facilities, where “smart” rooms with integrated audiovisual, computer station and internet access are available. We have also held trainings in hospitals, clinics, other health care settings, jails/prisons, community based organizations, and other community sites in New York City, New York State, nationally, and internationally.

• Funding: Trainings have been both free (i.e., grant-funded) and fee-for-service.

• Credits and Accreditation: The Center can offer professional continuing education credits for many of its trainings (e.g., National Association of Social Workers, American Psychological Association), and is a New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) Certified Education and Training Provider. In addition, Center personnel are trained or certified as "coaches" of selected interventions in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) program, and as trainers of service providers for selected New York State AIDS Institute courses.

Following are a list of trainings, technical assistance and capacity building services currently available on a fee-for-service basis. These can be tailored to fit your organization’s specific needs.

TRAININGS

• Authorized New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute “Overview of HIV Infection and AIDS”

Overview: This training is designed to give the participant a basic understanding of HIV infection and AIDS.

Format: Lecture.

Content: Topics to be covered include: 1) HIV transmission; 2) HIV prevention strategies; 3) course of HIV infection and AIDS; 4) importance of early detection; 5) treatment to slow down HIV infection; and 6) treatment to prevent opportunistic infection.

Audience: All health and human service providers.

Length: Half-day to full-day, depending upon client needs.

Credits/Accreditation: The Center is an AIDS Institute Authorized Training Agency, and can offer CME/CNE and OASAS credits, as well as a Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health certificate of completion. This course is also approved by OASAS for initial credentialing and renewal of CASAC, CPP, CPS for 3.0 clock hours. Other professional continuing education credits may be available upon request.

• Authorized New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute “Offering HIV Testing in CBOs Serving High Risk Communities”

Overview: This training will provide staff in community based organizations (CBOs) without prior experience offering any form of HIV testing with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapid and traditional HIV testing in accordance with New York State laws and regulations. This training is particularly intended for staff working in CBOs designated (or seeking designation) as a Limited Testing Site for Rapid HIV Testing.

Format: Lecture, role play, group exercises.

Content: This training will enable participants to: 1) state the benefits and barriers to implementing rapid testing in the various settings most accessible to high risk communities; 2) summarize the process for both rapid and standard tests; 3) define their responsibilities as a Limited Test Site performing rapid HIV testing; 4) list the requirements of a quality assurance plan for rapid HIV testing; 5) outline the process of confirmatory testing of all preliminary positive test results; 6) state the requirements of the NYS confidentiality laws as it pertains to HIV counseling, informed consent, confidentiality, HIV reporting and documentation; 7) demonstrate the NYS protocol for domestic violence screening and partner notification assistance; and 8) demonstrate the ability to perform all aspects of HIV counseling.

Audience: Staff without prior experience offering HIV testing who work at CBOs particularly designated (or seeking designation) as a Limited Test Site for HIV rapid testing. This training is also appropriate for staff who supervise or deliver HIV rapid testing in a community setting. Please note: It is strongly suggested that participants have previous knowledge or training on basic HIV/AIDS medical information. In addition to this training, staff who conduct rapid HIV testing should also receive instruction about how to perform the test in accordance with manufacturer's guidelines. Check with your supervisor or lab director about how this is being handled at your site.

Length: Three days.

Credits/Accreditation: The Center is an AIDS Institute Authorized Training Agency and offers a Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health certificate of completion.

• Introduction to HIV

Overview: A general introduction to HIV. Please note: This is a different course than the New York State AIDS Institute authorized “Overview of HIV Infection and AIDS” described above.

Format: Lecture, demonstration and hand-outs.

Content: Natural history of HIV disease, including acute or early HIV infection and the difference between HIV and AIDS; origins/emergence of HIV and growth into a pandemic; HIV as a chronic illness; societal response to HIV; transmission, testing and treatment; prevention; psychosocial adaptation to HIV, including issues surrounding maintenance of prevention or treatment behaviors; common co-occurring conditions.

Audience: Front-line personnel and service providers; general public.

Length: 3 hours.

Credits/Accreditation: Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health certificate of completion; professional credits upon request.

• Parent/Preadolescent Training for HIV Prevention (PATH)

Overview: This theory-driven and evidence-based intervention derives from a decade of community research. PATH has been adapted in New York City, Mexico City, Miami and Mumbai, and it informed the Center’s technical update of the New York City Department of Education’s K-12 HIV curriculum.

Format: Information and skill-building exercises, handouts, group problem-solving, video, role play.

Content: 1) HIV knowledge and HIV safety skills, 2) child development, parent-child communication, communication about sex, drugs and HIV, 3) transfer of risk recognition, avoidance and negotiation skills to youth, 4) sensitive and safe interaction with persons with HIV, 5) advanced communication skills with adolescents, 6) transfer of HIV safety responsibility to youth.

Audience: Parents, teachers, community leaders, youth service providers.

Length: 15 hours.

Credits/Accreditation: Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health certificate of completion; professional credits upon request (e.g., CASAC, CPP, CPS).

• Supporting and Caring for People Living with HIV/AIDS

Overview: An evidence-based stigma-reducing and skill-building training to promote safe and supportive interactions with PLwHIV and with members of their care and support networks.

Format: Information and skill-building exercises, handouts, group problem-solving, role play.

Content: Tailored for each client group (e.g., clinicians, parents) or for different professional needs (e.g., housekeepers or direct service providers), components can include mental health, addictions, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and other conditions that co-occur with HIV.

Audience: Hospital and clinic workers, family and community members, teachers, service providers, those who work with formerly incarcerated individuals, and the entire staff (clinical and/or nonclinical) of organizations that may serve or employ PLwHIV.

Length: Adapted to client needs.

Credits/Accreditation: Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health certificate of completion; professional credits upon request (e.g., CASAC, CPP, CPS).

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

• Adapting, Implementing and Evaluating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBIs). The DEBIs are evidence-based community- and group-level HIV prevention interventions approved by the CDC. For the following DEBIs, Center staff are certified “coaches,” i.e., professionals who will assist CBOs or governmental agencies in selection, adaptation, implementation and evaluation:

Healthy Relationships: A five-session, theory-driven, small-group intervention for African-American and Hispanic men and women living with HIV/AIDS which focuses on developing skills and building self-efficacy and positive expectations about new behaviors through modeling behaviors and practicing new skills.

VOICES/VOCES (Video Opportunities for Innovative Condom Education & Safer Sex): A group-level, single-session video-based intervention designed to increase condom use among heterosexual African-American and Hispanic men and women who visit STI clinics.

Community PROMISE (Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies): This community-level intervention, based upon several behavior change theories, involves: 1) a community assessment; 2) recruitment and training of peer advocates from the target population; 3) role model stories written from interviews with members of the target population; and 4) distribution of stories, along with other risk reduction materials, to target audiences to help people move toward safer sex or risk reduction practices. Community PROMISE can target any population, since it is created anew each time it is implemented in collaboration with the community; it has been tested with African American, White, and Latino communities, including intravenous drug users and their sex partners, non-gay identified men who have sex with men, high risk youth, female sex workers, and high risk heterosexuals, among others.

• Grantwriting and Grant Development. Workshops and consultative services covering all aspects of grantwriting and grant development, including planning, budgeting, implementation, and recordkeeping systems, provided by our experienced and successful, private- and publicly-funded grant writing team.

• Research Analysis and Evaluation Design. Workshops and consultative services are available for:

>•Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (prerequisite is an introductory >.statistics course);
>•Questionnaire Development System (QDS), a computer-assisted interviewing system;
>•Introduction to Evaluation;
>•Introduction to Research;
>•Introduction to Psychosocial Measurement; and
>•Exploration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies (e.g., focused groups, •>surveys).

• Data Management and Statistical Analysis. Workshops, consultative services and contracts are available for professional design of data collection and analysis methods.

• Keeping Current with the Literature. Hands-on workshop on how to read and interpret journal articles and other types of literature crucial to the field of public health. An introduction to concepts in statistics, measurement and research/evaluation design, with an eye toward analyzing and critically evaluating results, charts, graphs and tables.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Board of Directors Training. Duties and responsibilities of board members; legal obligations; fiscal oversight and accountability; human resource issues; ensuring quality; recruiting, training, developing, and maintaining board members; strategic planning; succession planning; ethical issues; marketing and fund development; risk management.

• Corporate Compliance. Devising systems and recordkeeping to ensure compliance with all regulations governing local, state, and federal grants.

• Executive Leadership Training. All aspects of leading, managing, and overseeing organizational development and maintenance for the CEO and other senior staff of organizations.

• Not-for-Profit Fiscal Management. Assist not-for-profit managers to conceptualize a Chart of Accounts, develop basic spreadsheets for tracking of expenses, develop systems and procedures to ensure that all costs are captured and categorized appropriately and to create reports useful to management and funders to demonstrate appropriate use of funds in light of governmental and foundation guidelines; risk management.