Syringe Access Fund to Support Programs to Prevent Spread of HIV

Posted by on October 20, 2008

Syringe Access Fund to Support Programs to Prevent Spread of HIV
Deadline: November 20, 2008

The Syringe Access Fund is a grantmaking initiative that supports service providers and policy projects to reduce the risk of HIV infection and other blood-borne pathogens among injection drug users, their sexual partners, and children through expanded access to sterile syringes. The fund is a grantmaking collaboration between the Elton John AIDS Foundation (http://ejaf.org/), the Irene Diamond Fund, the Levi Strauss Foundation (http://levistrauss.com/citizenship/levistraussfoundation.aspx), the Public Welfare Foundation (http://www.publicwelfare.org/), and the Tides Foundation (http://www.tidesfoundation.org/).

The fund seeks to help fill the current gaps in policy and funding for services and is supported by funders who believe that sound scientific evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of syringe access programs in helping to prevent HIV must drive both policy and practice. This grant round will award one-year grants, with proposed activity start-dates in early 2009.

The fund provides grants to support one of the two following program areas: 1) expanded access to clean syringes via Syringe Exchange Programs; and 2) education and mobilization campaigns focusing on policy change at a state and/or local level.

The primary goal of the Syringe Access Fund is to provide core support for programs that demonstrate an ability to provide high-quality syringe access services to an identified population; and/or an ability to conduct statewide and/or local-level policy education initiatives that demonstrate concrete goals and activities to expand access to sterile syringes.

The 2008-09 grant cycle will provide one-year grants, emphasizing funding for organizations previously funded by the fund. However, new applicants are welcome to apply. Grants will be made to organizations working within the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Native American Reservations/Tribal Land, and Puerto Rico.

Maximum awards will be up to $100,000 for one year for organizations providing direct syringe exchange services or doing state- and/or local-level policy education/mobilization work.

See the Tides Foundation Web site for complete program information.

RFP Link: http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/15015336/tidesfdn