Urban Coalition for Hiv Aids Prevention Services (UCHAPS)

The Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS) is a 501(c)3 based in Washington DC. The non-profit organization is a national collaboration of community partners and health departments dedicated to promoting public health and preventing new HIV infections. Key activities include providing peer technical assistance among local programs; developing best practice documents based on member experiences that support prevention program development and implementation; informing federal initiatives across the US Department of Health and Human Services with a focus on the experiences of urban jurisdictions and their HIV prevention-related needs; collaborating with local, state, federal, and global partnerships to identify strategies that accelerate progress towards decreasing new HIV infections; educating policymakers to build support for HIV Prevention. UCHAPS supported the implementation of a capacity building assistance program aimed at increasing the capacity of jurisdictions highly impacted by HIV to implement effective routine HIV testing in public and private health care settings, including the use of new testing technologies, prevention with HIV positive persons and program implementation related policy; developing and executing trainings and online learning modules, sharing best practices. UCHAPS participated in numerous meetings with national and federal partners to describe, discuss and identify challenges and opportunities for improving HIV prevention services to underserved communities.