UNC CENTER FOR AIDS RESEARCH

NEWS LETTER | APRIL 2023 Second Edition

Meet our UNC CFAR Community Partners

Craniofacial Hospital

Ronald P. Strauss, DMD, Ph.D

Claude Adams Distinguished Professor of Dentistry and Professor of Social Medicine

Ron Strauss, our UNC CFAR Community Collaboration Board (CCB) Facilitator and the co-lead of the Office of Community Engagement, is celebrating the recent opening of a major new Craniofacial Hospital in Guatemala City. This new three-floor hospital is attached to the Juan Pablo II Children’s Hospital, a public hospital in Guatemala City. The new Craniofacial Hospital is funded and established by a private charity (Operacion Sonrisa Guatemala) and is dedicated to training local professionals in the delivery of team-based continuity care for children born with cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial and cranial conditions. The UNC Adams School of Dentistry has partnered with the Universidad Francisco Marroquin School of Dentistry in Guatemala City to train and cultivate local expertise. Ron will accompany the first faculty exchange group to Guatemala in June, and then the Guatemalan team will come to Chapel Hill in August/September. Faculty and post-graduate residents from both universities will be working together on craniofacial team development.

Latino Commission on AIDS & Latinos in the South

Latinos in the South (LITS) is a program of the Latino Commission on AIDS, working in 9 Southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas with a program office in Durham, NC.

Our main program pillars consist of community building and policy and advocacy through the lens of language justice and bodily autonomy. Our programming includes capacity building assistance and trainings, leadership institutes, and community resource development and investment.

LITS Team from L-R : Jessie Claudio, Carlos Fernandez, Judith Montenegro, Joaquín Carcaño, Aleida Espinal, and Daniela Ceron

LITS in Puerto Rico from L–R it is Daniela Ceron, Joaquín Carcaño, Aleida Espinal, Judith Montenegro, Carlos Fernandez, & Jessie Claudio

Our Mission:

Our vision is to ensure health justice by disrupting systems that continue to impact Black, Latinx, Immigrants, LGBTQ, and PLWH (historically harmed communities) through innovation and community-empowering resources. Read more

Learn more from our latest news

Encuentro

Encuentro is an annual three-day convening of LGBTQ Latinx Southerners and allies hosted by LITS to improve the healthcare capacity and build bridges between emerging multi-racial and multi-lingual Southern Latinx communities and their kindred. The convening consists of keynote speakers, panel conversations, a variety of workshops, and an evening social with attendance capped between 120-150 individuals to conserve the community reunion environment and energy and foster relationship building. It is held in a different Southern city each year to highlight the local community and allow opportunities for Southerners to explore more of the region. Encuentro 2023 will be held in San Antonio, Texas October 25th – 27th.

Encuentro Panel

Triad Health Project

Triad Health Project began in 1986 as a grassroots effort among fourteen friends to deal with the emerging health crisis and the barriers and discrimination their friends with HIV and AIDS were facing. Through the years, our services have adapted to the changing reality of HIV management. Presently, THP is one of the largest AIDS service organizations in North Carolina, with a culturally diverse staff of 13 and a volunteer base that exceeds three hundred.

The mission of the Triad Health Project is to promote sexual health and justice through radical care, love, and equity while working to free our community from HIV, its stigma, and its root causes.

Our vision is to see a future free from HIV.

Services we offer:

HIV 101 Trainings
Support and Treatment
Support Groups (LGBTQ)
Free Condoms
Higher Ground (Safe Space for individuals with HIV

Access to PreP
Food Pantry
HIV Case Management
HIV/STI Testing
Pregnancy Testing (Free)
Education & Outreach

Condom Baskets in Guilford County

As Guilford County’s leader in sexual health for 34 years, Triad Health Project has partnered with five local organizations to help more people practice safer sex.

Meet Our Team!!

Announcements:

Speed Dating High Point, NC 4/23/2023
Madi Gras at Castle McCulloch 4/29/2023
THP Cares an Evening of Backdoor Broadway 5/25/2023
Please contact Triad Health Project for more information.

For more information, Contact us @ 336-275-1654

Internships With UNC CFAR Office of Community Engagement

North Carolina Central University Health Education Associate

Demya Faulcon Graduating Senior of Public Health

Demya Faulcon

Graduating Senior of Public Health

My name is Demya Faulcon, and I am a graduating senior at North Carolina Central University majoring in Public Health Education. I had the opportunity to have an internship at UNC CFAR Office of Community Engagement. My experience during my internship here at UNC CFAR has been inspiring and empowering. When I first started this internship, I had very little information about HIV. Working alongside Alicia Diggs, Ph.D (c), MPH, BSW has expanded my knowledge about HIV from a community based level. I have had the opportunity to network with many health organizations such as Latino in the Deep South and the Triad Health Project. Ms. Diggs gave me the opportunity to connect with the Positive Women’s Network and become an ally for the organization. Ms. Diggs does a wonderful job keeping me connected with the community and teaching me how to navigate in the community when delivering effective health information. Working as an intern at UNC CFAR has been beneficial to my professional career as a health education associate. This internship has inspired me to become an advocate for those who are living with HIV. My goal after graduation is to pursue a Master’s in Public Health Education. I would recommend other students for this internship because it will help you grow as an individual and professional.

Announcements and Awareness Days

7th Annual ACTHIV AMERICAN CONFERENCE FOR THE TREATMENT OF HIV 2023

The American Conference for the Treatment of HIV (ACTHIV)

May 4-6, 2023

Phoenix, AZ

2023 National Latinx Conference

Thriving Together: Innovation and Healing Amidst Pandemic

National Latinx Conference on HIV/HCV/SUD

May 11-13, 2023

New Orleans, LA – Virtual Attendance Available

HIV Is Not a Crime 5

National Training Academy

HIV is Not a Crime, the fifth national training academy to educate and train people living with HIV (PLHIV), activists, stakeholders, and policy leaders to mobilize state-level advocacy to end HIV-related criminalization, will be held June 4 – 7, 2023, at Henry and Emory College in Emory, VA.

IAS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science

IAS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science, will take place in Brisbane, Australia, and virtually from 23 to 26 July 2023. IAS 2023, being held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, will shine a spotlight on the world's advances in HIV research.

Our mailing address is:

UNC CFAR

Bioinformatics Building 130 Mason Farm Road

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-0001, USA