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About
GCI
History
Our Friends
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 AIDS/HIV Education
& Counseling
In 1988 GCI developed a program to expand HIV/AIDS
awareness among the Latino population. Statistics at the time revealed
the Latino Community was disproportionately affected by the deadly
disease. Currently there are an estimated 4,838 AIDS cases in the
greater Kansas City area, while Hispanics comprise only 170 of these
cases. The Guadalupe Center believes this number is not reflective of
actual cases due to the low testing level among Hispanics as well as
other factors.
Initially, the program focused on the Latino community
at large through bilingual preventive education and case management for
Persons With AIDS (PWAs). In group settings, educators discuss modes of
transmission, high risk behaviors, risk reduction alternatives, and
testing sites in the Kansas City area. Such an approach, however, often
overlooks elements of the high-risk population: prostitutes, substance
abusers, and the homeless.
GCI's response was to add a Street Outreach Program to
reach these high-risk individuals (October 1991 Whereas the original program educates those already involved in a
particular organization i.e. schools and social groups, Street Outreach
works the streets, parks, fiestas, and other areas of casual
congregation. Street Outreach provides individuals with bilingual
pamphlets or cards containing information as well as locations for
testing and counseling.
With one full-time educator, the HIV/AIDS Education
and Counseling Program reaches approximately 100,000 people in a year
through individual contacts, the AIDS Message Sack Project, Direct
Assistance Program to Hispanics living with AIDS, by providing an
information and referral telephone number and several other components.
The program receives funding from the Kansas City Missouri Health
Department, National Community Partnership on AIDS, Ryan White Title I
as well as Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS.
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