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Rural Center for AIDS Prevention at IU receives $250,000 federal grant
Oct. 5, 2000
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A federal grant of $250,000 for the first year of a projected five-year project has been awarded to the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) at Indiana University.
William L. Yarber, senior director of RCAP, said total funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to reach at least $1.25 million for the five years. Purdue University and the Texas A&M University School of Rural Public Health also are involved in the project.
Both Yarber and IU President Myles Brand credited support from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) in making the federal funds possible.
"Dr. Yarber's important work will help to control this devastating disease in communities that have been largely under-served by other AIDS prevention programs. Sen. Bayh has worked diligently to help secure this funding for Indiana University, and we are extremely grateful for his support," Brand said.
"RCAP commends Sen. Bayh for this commitment to fighting the AIDS epidemic and for his vision in supporting this unique cooperative venture of three universities," Yarber said. "We are most grateful for his support of our goal of reducing HIV/STD incidence in rural areas."
The CDC is the lead federal agency in preventing and controlling diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
The funding will involve three primary activities: providing an information exchange program among education specialists concerning HIV prevention in rural communities, developing HIV prevention programs and policies for rural areas, and providing new technical assistance to community-based organizations and HIV prevention specialists in rural areas.
The center also will hold national conferences on HIV/STD prevention in rural communities and conduct research on behavioral and social barriers to HIV/STD prevention that can be applied to prevention programming.
Yarber is a professor of health education in the Department of Applied Health Science at the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He said RCAP is the only center in the country focusing solely on HIV/STD prevention in rural areas. The center was started in 1994 as a mutual project of IU and Purdue University, with funding originally coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With the new CDC funding, the center will continue to be headquartered at IU but also will include the Texas A&M University School of Rural Public Health.
The center has completed numerous research and development projects; produced three monographs and numerous fact sheets, newsletters and bulletins; and conducted national and regional conferences. Last year, for example, the center released a survey of Indiana residents' opinions on the use of condoms for AIDS prevention.
The funding proposal for the IU program was endorsed by top AIDS research centers at the University of California at San Francisco and the Medical College of Wisconsin, in addition to the National Rural Health Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)