2026 U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS

Building for the Future: Organizational Needs Assessment & Sustainability Strategies is an energetic 60-minute workshop for HIV CBO leaders to strengthen organizational capacity and sustainability. Participants master three practical frameworks – SOAR for visioning, NOISE for action planning, and pivot strategies for crisis resilience – through interactive exercises. Participants leave with completed organizational assessments and actionable strategies for operational sustainability.; ; Learning Objectives:; By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Explain the purpose and best practices of organizational needs assessments and how they align with vision and mission. Apply the SOAR framework (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) to identify future-focused organizational strategies. Utilize the NOISE model (Needs, Opportunities, Improvements, Strengths, Exceptions) to develop quarterly action steps for a priority challenge. Analyze potential disruptions across four key sustainability pillars – funding, technology, workforce, and community health crises – and formulate strategies to pivot effectively. Commit to at least one action or practice they will implement in the next 90 days to strengthen organizational sustainability.

This workshop examines what it takes to build HIV organizations capable of surviving long-term political, financial, and workforce instability. Grounded in lived leadership experience and organizational redesign, the session explores lessons learned from building and sustaining Black-led, community-rooted HIV and reproductive justice work in hostile environments. Participants will examine common organizational vulnerabilities-including burnout, funding fragility, crisis-driven operations, and weak succession planning-while exploring practical strategies for building resilient infrastructure, sustainable leadership models, workforce stability, and adaptive operational systems. The purpose of this workshop will help leaders strengthen organizational durability, protect mission integrity, and build institutions capable of sustaining long-term community impact.

For 45 years, Black communities have shaped the HIV response through organizing, advocacy, care, and leadership. Yet Black people continue to experience disproportionate HIV outcomes while facing attacks on healthcare access, voting rights, civil rights protections, and public health infrastructure. Led by United We Rise, this interactive session will examine the intersections of HIV, political power, and Black liberation. Through storytelling, dialogue, and reflection, participants will explore lessons from Black HIV activism, current threats to HIV prevention, care, and research, and opportunities to strengthen Black-led responses that center community power, intersectionality, and collective action.

Built by Us, For Us: Housing, Dignity & Long-Term Care for Aging People Living with HIV

Presenter:
Andrew Gutierrez III, M.Ed, Director of Housing and Benefits, San Francisco AIDS Foundation

HIV/Aging with HIV: Fighting for Dignity in Care Setting

Presenters:
Terri L. Wilder, MSW
Jeff Berry
Timothy Jackson

People aging with HIV and older LGBTQ+ individuals continue to face discrimination in long-term care and home- and community-based services, including denial of care, premature discharge, and stigma. As more people age with HIV, the need for affirming services grows. This session highlights efforts to advance LGBTQ+ and HIV Long-Term Care Bills of Rights across states, including New York, Minnesota, and Illinois. Presenters will share lessons on coalition building, strategy, and community engagement. Participants will learn how these efforts can be adapted in other jurisdictions to strengthen protections, improve care access, and support more equitable, affirming care systems.

This workshop, led by M. Keith Rawlings, MD (Chair, Internal Medicine/HIV Section, National Medical Association), examines the persistent gap between CDC-recommended routine HIV testing guidelines and actual clinical practice, revealing striking disparities in testing and PrEP access across age, race, gender, and geography — particularly affecting Black and Hispanic communities and the Southern United States. The session also addresses critical workforce shortages and the underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic providers in HIV care, before shifting to practical guidance on how clinicians can serve as health advocates by engaging policymakers, building community coalitions, and leveraging their position at the intersection of clinical practice and community health equity.

This session examines the throughline between survival sex work economies and the nonprofit industrial complex and how both systems shape power, legitimacy, and leadership for Black and Brown trans people. Drawing from lived experience, movement history, and current organizing, it offers a political analysis of how respectability politics, philanthropy, legal systems, and organizational hierarchies reproduce harm while relying on the labor of those most exposed to violence and poverty. Grounded in the Trans Agenda for Liberation, participants will develop shared language, identify extractive leadership pipelines, and build strategies rooted in accountability, safety, and shared power toward collective liberation.

This interactive workshop will highlight traditional Hawaiian cultural and healing approaches to health for individuals living with HIV experiencing substance use, mental health and isolation.Native Hawaiian practices are rooted in balance, spirituality, community connections, and restoring harmony between mind, body, family, land, and ancestors. While ancient Hawaiians did not use the western term substance use disorders (SUD) or mental health, many traditional practices align closely with trauma healing, behavioral recovery, emotional regulation, and community reintegration.Native Hawaiian Cultural practices serve as an essential base for both delivering and accessing care to our native Hawaiian and local communities.

Public health organizations face ongoing challenges sustaining workforce development amid evolving community needs, staff turnover, and limited training resources. This session highlights a technical assistance partnership between CAI and the Houston Health Department focused on strengthening internal training capacity through facilitation and curriculum development skill-building. Rather than relying solely on external trainers, the initiative emphasized sustainable, learner-centered workforce development tailored to organizational culture and staff expertise. Presenters will share lessons learned related to organizational engagement, adapting technical assistance to workforce needs, and building internal training infrastructure. Attendees will gain practical strategies to support sustainable workforce development within public health settings.

Black women continue to experience disproportionate HIV-related health inequities, yet many remain absent from routine conversations about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). As two Black women public health professionals working in HIV prevention, we repeatedly encountered women who were unaware that PrEP was an HIV prevention option for them. Rather than assuming what Black women needed, we listened. The result was the Mahogany Blue Black Women & PrEP Campaign and the subsequent development of the PrEP for Black Women Toolkit, resources designed to ensure that Black women are seen, heard, represented, and included in HIV prevention conversations.

As the HIV/AIDS demographic landscape shifts dramatically, urgent collaboration between HIV service providers and aging services staff of all ages is critical. Currently, around 50% of people living with HIV in the U.S. are over 50. Projections show this increases to 70% by 2030 (CDC). Alarmingly, in San Francisco, 75% of those living with HIV are aged 50 or older. This stark reality underscores the pressing need for integrated services that address the unique challenges faced by the population. This workshop aims to empower participants to act swiftly, foster collaboration and advocacy to enhance the lives of this vulnerable population.

Despite clear evidence that open, affirming communication about sex and sexual health between patients and providers improves prevention, screening, and treatment of HIV and other STIs, many clinicians, case managers, peer navigators, and health educators report discomfort, lack of training, and uncertainty in discussing it. This interactive workshop, aligned with “United and Unbreakable,” aims to strengthen participants’ confidence and skills in navigating conversations about sex with patients and clients, including the importance of screening and treatment of HIV and STIs to overall health and wellness, and to prepare clients for sometimes challenging conversations about sex, HIV, STIs and overall wellness.

What happens when PWH become the storytellers of the movement, and when CQM intentionally invests in trust, representation, and human connection?

Structural barriers, fragmented data systems, and stigma drive persistent gaps in HIV outcomes that disproportionately affect Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities, particularly in the South. Conversely, PEPFAR has achieved remarkable progress in global HIV epidemic control through bold, data-driven, and community-led innovations that were developed, funded, and scaled by U.S. leadership; presenting an opportunity to apply lessons learned to strengthen domestic HIV programming. This workshop bridges the global and domestic HIV response by introducing HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau implementation science framework to adapt PEPFAR innovations, while centering communities and closing persistent gaps in domestic HIV prevention, care, and treatment.

People living with HIV who are out of care often continue accessing social service programs, creating opportunities for re-engagement outside traditional medical settings. This workshop will present Friends For All’s “No Wrong Door” model, which integrates HIV care navigation into social service settings to identify individuals who have fallen out of care and facilitate rapid re-engagement. Participants will learn how universal screening, data integration, co-located linkage staff, and supportive services can improve care engagement. The session will highlight implementation strategies, lessons learned, outcomes achieved, and practical steps organizations can use to develop similar models within their communities.

This workshop explores how storytelling shapes our understanding of the body, illness, suffering, and healing. Drawing on the narrative framework of The Wounded Storyteller, the archetype of Chiron, and Carl Jung’s concept of individuation, participants will examine the stories they have inherited and created about vulnerability, health, and transformation. Through reflection, discussion, and storytelling exercises, the workshop aims to help participants better understand how narrative influences meaning-making, identity, resilience, and human connection, while offering tools to engage experiences of illness and healing with greater awareness and compassion.

Since ChatGPT’s release in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) tools have rapidly entered healthcare, public health, and everyday workflows. For the workforce, the challenge is no longer whether AI will influence practice, but how to engage with these tools critically, ethically, and effectively. This workshop explores opportunities and risks of AI in HIV prevention through interactive discussion, guided reflection, hands-on exploration of generative AI use cases, and real-world scenarios. Participants will develop foundational AI literacy skills and leave with a practical framework for assessing readiness, responsible use, and appropriate application in HIV prevention practice.

For many years, we have received anecdotal evidence of the poor care women living with HIV receive during the postpartum period of their birthing experience. To address this issue, The Well Project surveyed community members to identify gaps in support and educational needs. Findings revealed gaps in healthcare continuity, peer support, culturally sensitive education, and more. Many respondents reported minimal assistance in maintaining their healthcare during the postpartum period as clinicians focused primarily on pediatric care. This workshop will discuss survey insights, available resources, and strategies to enhance the care for postpartum individuals living with HIV.

Through storytelling, archival materials, and intergenerational dialogue, this workshop brings together a moderated conversation between people with lived experience working in the sexual education and pleasure fields, public health experts, and attorneys exploring how communities left behind by the government and public health during the early days of the epidemic kept themselves safe with formal and informal harm reductive sexual health practices as well as how people living with HIV today can have healthy, positive sex lives amidst prevailing stigma and HIV criminalization laws.

The Washington, DC Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA) Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is a regionally coordinated, status-neutral, and whole-person HIV system that integrates prevention, treatment, and supportive services across multiple jurisdictions. Through aligned Ryan White Part A and Part B programming, the DC EMA operationalizes cross-sector partnerships to reduce fragmentation and address the intersecting impacts of HIV, behavioral health conditions, stigma, housing instability, and other social determinants of health. Spanning Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, the model advances trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and equity-driven strategies designed to improve continuity of care and long-term health outcomes across the lifespan.

The Retention and Adherence Program serves patients with HIV who are newly diagnosed, out-of-care or not regularly engaged in care. Understanding how social barriers impede an individual’s ability to achieve and maintain viral load suppression is critical for achieving HIV elimination goals in New York state. To identify social determinants, an assessment was developed by the New York State Department of Health, AIDS Institute. Various key social determinants of health have been identified within the HIV patient population served through the Retention and Adherence Program. Data were analyzed to examine social determinants needs and viral load suppression.

Evidence-based HIV interventions often face challenges when implemented in real-world settings due to organizational, workforce, and sustainability barriers. This interactive workshop introduces implementation science concepts through a practical HIV capacity-building lens. Participants will explore how implementation science can support the adoption, adaptation, implementation, and sustainability of HIV programs and services. Using implementation mapping exercises, and facilitated discussion, attendees will identify common implementation barriers and develop strategies to improve program effectiveness. This session translates implementation science into practical tools that can be applied by health departments, community-based organizations, and capacity-building providers to strengthen HIV prevention and care outcomes.

In this insightful breakout session, delve into the complexities and opportunities of third-party billing systems for HIV prevention programs and services, including the utilization of 340B rebate services. Participants will gain expertise in the operational aspects of third-party billing, exploring strategies to enhance revenue streams and financial sustainability for HIV prevention efforts. This session will also address common challenges and provide solutions for navigating the regulatory and compliance landscape associated with 340B and other billing systems.; ; Learning Objectives:; By the end of this training, participants will: Understand the Grant Cycle’s importance to grant compliance. Understand the components of Grants Management. Understand Organizational Budgets. Identify the usages of third-party billing systems to maximize budgets and expand services.

This session examines how overlapping systems of immigration precarity, displacement trauma, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and HIV-related stigma shape the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ immigrants in the United States. Centering storytelling and community leadership, the session highlights how queer immigrants build informal care networks, peer support systems, and community-led HIV response strategies when formal systems fail. The purpose is to elevate lived experience as expertise, explore immigration as a critical public health determinant, and equip HIV practitioners, researchers, and advocates with trauma-informed, culturally responsive approaches for improving prevention, care engagement, and whole-person health outcomes for immigrant LGBTQ communities.

This interactive institute explores how integrated healthcare can address the overlapping needs of individuals seeking HIV prevention and treatment, sexual health services, behavioral healthcare, substance use treatment, housing support, and other essential services. Using Tarzana Treatment Centers’ 50-year evolution and “No Wrong Door” model as a practical case study, participants will examine strategies such as multidisciplinary care planning, shared electronic health records, and coordinated referral pathways. Through hands-on mapping exercises and clinical scenarios, attendees will develop a customized Integration Map or 90-day implementation plan to reduce service fragmentation and strengthen whole-person care in their own organizations and communities.

Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM) continue to experience high rates of HIV infection, and PrEP remains central to prevention. Medical mistrust may shape how people interpret healthcare advice, prevention services, and medication options. Prior research has not fully explained how mistrust factors into PrEP decisions among LMSM. This qualitative study examined how LMSM in Chicago/Cook County described healthcare experiences, trust and mistrust, health information, and decisions about PrEP use.

The purpose of this program is to integrate addiction-particularly methamphetamine use-into HIV prevention and care conversations, with a focus on Latinx LGBTQI+ communities.

In 2024, Black & Latina women accounted for 74% of new HIV diagnoses among women, yet women represented just 9% of PrEP users. Through an interactive workshop series, participants will gain practical insights and best practices for meaningful engagement with young Black and Latina women in HIV prevention efforts. Attendees will strengthen their ability to develop culturally responsive and holistic sexual health education strategies in community and clinical settings.

Ending the interconnected epidemics of HIV, STIs, and HCV requires more than any single agency can offer alone. Doing so requires integrated strategies, shared accountability, and partnerships across public health, behavioral health, housing, and community. This workshop presents California’s Integrated Statewide HIV/STI/HCV Strategic Plan and Implementation Blueprint as a replicable model for jurisdictions across the country. Grounded in a syndemic framework and six social determinants of health – racial equity, economic justice, health access, housing first, stigma free, and substance use and mental health – this approach offers practical lessons for jurisdictions ready to move beyond siloed epidemic response.

Substance use has always been a major obstructor to HIV prevention and treatment adherence for BIPOC PLWHA. HRC employs a whole person approach, using storytelling to introduce harm reduction tools including NARCAN, Fentanyl test strips, clean syringes and info on mental health and LAIs in our “goodie bags.” We will provide free goodie bags and education on each item at USCHA , do a modified training and conduct storytelling activities in both Spanish and English in one workshop. We will give strategies to bring CBOs to PLWHA and Spanish speakers, ensuring there are linkage opportunities in communities across the country.

This study examines how perceived HIV/STI susceptibility aligns with sexual health, behavioral, and relationship-level vulnerability among cisgender women in Maryland, which is home to three ending the HIV epidemic jurisdictions. Using survey data from 158 women, we identify gaps between low or uncertain perceived risk and reported indicators such as condomless sex, substance-associated sex, multiple partners, partner violence, prior STI diagnosis, and limited PrEP/PEP uptake. Findings highlight the need for whole-person, trauma-informed, gender-responsive HIV/STI prevention strategies that move beyond individual risk perception and better integrate prevention into clinical and community-based sexual health settings as a standard.

This presentation examines the development of a community centered status neutral care model designed to strengthen the role of community based organizations within HIV prevention, treatment, sexual health, and supportive service delivery. The model creates a coordinated framework that connects community engagement, care navigation, prevention services, treatment services, and social support through a single system. The project seeks to improve access, reduce fragmentation, strengthen continuity of care, and build sustainable pathways for community organizations to contribute to improved health outcomes while maintaining their trusted role within the communities they serve.

This workshop will explore the unique impact of isolation on the developing mind of a Lifetime Survivor and examine the influence of social support networks on mental health, medication adherence, care retention, parenthood, clinical practice, and research. Because Lifetime Survivors represent a small and geographically dispersed population, many grow up without peers who share their lived experiences, contributing to isolation, stigma, and unmet psychosocial needs. By examining the impact of national support networks, this workshop positions community as a vital investment and tool for sustaining health, fostering leadership, and creating solutions within rare populations.

This interactive workshop seeks to address a technical assistance (TA) priority identified at NASTAD’s National Consultation on Populations Aging with and Vulnerable to HIV in July 2024, which brought together national experts, community partners, and those with lived experience to provide peer-to-peer information on areas of focus for the aging population, including how health departments have engaged or can engage this community to better understand and support their needs. Attendees indicated that a workshop on how to develop, disseminate, synthesize, and operationalize a population-specific needs assessment would be beneficial for helping to identify gaps in prevention and care.

This workshop will explore how community pharmacies can serve as trusted, convenient, and stigma-reducing access points for HIV prevention and care. Using the Rx for Change model, participants will discuss how pharmacy-based HIV testing, PrEP education, referrals, and prescriptions can increase access in communities disproportionately impacted by HIV, particularly in the U.S. South. The workshop will allow participants to examine the role of community-based organizations, pharmacy teams, public health partners, and policymakers in transforming pharmacies into sustainable HIV prevention access points.

People living with HIV are strongest when united, informed, and empowered. This workshop examines how HIV criminalization differs across the United States and the African Diaspora, through intersectional and lived-experience lens. The U.S., HIV criminalization laws largely center on non-disclosure of HIV status rather than transmission itself. However, in many African Diaspora communities, HIV criminalization may involve both disclosure and transmission. Disclosure can threaten personal safety, immigration status, housing, employment, or life itself. Participants will explore untold stories from African immigrants and LTS. Critically examine gaps in current legal frameworks, and engage in dialogue expanding HIV justice conversations and advocacy.

This workshop lifts up the leadership and lived experience of people living with HIV (PLHIV) within the HIV BASIC coalition and our data privacy and anti criminalization work. Grounded in Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV (MIPA), we explore how medical paternalism, data surveillance, emerging technologies shape access to care, bodily autonomy, and informed consent. This session is grounded in our Consensus Statement which outlines shared principles for resisting the criminalization and misuse of health data. Attendees will use storytelling community led analysis to connect lived experience to systems of power and build strategies for a just HIV response.

“Who are we excluding from our decision making tables, what are losing?” This interactive workshop shares how one mentor elevated a peer survivor living with HIV to organizational leadership. In February 2008, Denise Drayton, Director of Education and Prevention at Exponents Inc., hired Victor Velazquez, fresh from recovery and incarceration. Denise mentored Victor through a proven four phase model: HIRE (see the value), ONBOARD (build safety), DEVELOP (build capacity), ELEVATE (share power). By 2014, when Denise retired, Victor became Director of Training and Recruitment. This workshop teaches what Denise knew: peer leadership is not a risk. It is a foundation.

Steeping Self-Care is an interactive wellness experience presented by Upspoken and RoyalTea. Designed for advocates, leaders and conference attendees, this community-centered workshop promotes self-care, creativity and connection. Participants will create a custom tea blend and paint a mug or teacup while engaging in meaningful conversation and reflection. Centering the idea that caregivers must also care for themselves, the experience provides a welcoming space to recharge, build relationships and explore how creativity and collective care can strengthen advocacy, wellness and community impact.

Serving marginalized communities is meaningful. It is also heavy, and the weight is not always visible from the outside. Vicarious trauma, chronic stress, and burnout are not just individual challenges. They’re organizational symptoms that signal deeper challenges. This interactive 90-minute workshop invites nonprofit leaders, staff, and capacity builders to explore organizational health through a trauma-informed lens. Participants will distinguish between organizational trauma symptoms and responses, examine the prevalence and cost of burnout, and leave with evidence-based strategies. Through live polls, a collaborative group activity, and a high-energy closing game, attendees will walk away with practical tools to build healthy cultures.

Latino/a/x communities bear a disproportionate HIV burden, now compounded by 2025-2026 federal funding cuts, immigration enforcement, coverage losses, and restrictions on the language used to describe them. This interactive workshop introduces VocesLatinasGuide.org a field guide developed from interviews with 20 leaders, including frontline clinicians, researchers, advocates, and organizational staff. Through facilitated case discussions and live polling, participants will apply and stress-test the guide’s twenty response strategies, spanning patient retention, organizational sustainability, coalition building, and advocacy, while adapting them to their own settings. Attendees will leave with practical tools and help shape the guide’s next edition through structured feedback.