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    The CRUSH Project 

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    East Bay AIDS Center: C.R.U.S.H.: Connecting Resources for Urban Sexual Health

    Jeff Burack, Principal Investigator (East Bay AIDS Center)
    The overall goal of the proposed CRUSH project is to enhance and extend a response to the local HIV/AIDS epidemic in Alameda County with a set of innovative, evidence-based interventions across the continuum of HIV prevention and care, targeting young men who have sex with men. The consortium of agencies and organizations that comprise the CRUSH Project are led by the East Bay AIDS Center, in Oakland California, and are uniquely positioned to leverage existing public health and community resources along with innovative new partnerships in order to expand sexual health services, including access to PrEP as part of a complete prevention package. We will also enhance the services provided by an existing model program for HIV-infected youth based on formative research findings from the pilot study conducted for this project, and will enhance linkage to and retention in this and other HIV care programs. The interventions associated with the aims of this demonstration project are as follows:

    AIM 1: Test and link young MSM of color to sexual health services: We will expand the Downtown Youth Clinic’s successful HIV testing strategy targeting youth to include: social network testing; and an innovative youth outreach corps working with existing and new community partner agencies.

    Aim 2: Enhance and evaluate engagement and retention strategies for young MSM of color infected with HIV: We plan to optimize the current HIV care and treatment services at DYC by adding three new components: a patient peer mentoring component, a linkage and retention specialist, and psychosocial support for program staff.

    Aim 3: Engage and retain HIV-uninfected young MSM of color in sexual health services, including PrEP: We plan to build a highly innovative model of sexual healthcare that integrates sexual health services for HIV-uninfected young MSM of color into an HIV care setting. These services will offer a highly effective combination HIV prevention strategy, including PrEP, warm-hand offs for high risk negatives, non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP), rik reduction counseling, repeat HIV and STI testing, and youth-focused programming.