Training Guide - A Resource for Orienting & Training Planning Council & Consortium Members

This Training Guide was developed to assist Title I HIV planning councils and Title II care consortia in ensuring that all members have the information and skills for full participation in Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act planning and implementation activities, with special emphasis on PLWH members . Successful implementation of the CARE Act depends upon the work of planning bodies in communities throughout the nation, and requires that members be diverse, active, and well informed. PLWH involvement in such planning bodies is both a legislative requirement and a practical necessity . The CARE Act, enacted in 1990 and reauthorized in 1996, requires planning councils and consortia to include members from affected communities, including people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHs). The Division of HIV Services (DHS), which administers Title I and Title II of the CARE Act, believes that effective programs and services must be developed based on the input and perspectives of those for whom the services are intended. The Training Guide was initiated to address the need for orientation and training for planning body members who were people living with HIV disease . A consultant to DHS developed the initial outline. Subsequently, DHS staff and participants in the third Community Discussion Group meeting in October 1995 reviewed, revised, and expanded it. The resulting content outline became the basis for this guide, prepared by MOSAICA: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism through an interactive process with the PLWH Response Committee of DHS and with John Snow, Inc., the Ryan White Technical Assistance Contractor. Following review of the draft guide, DHS decided that a Training Guide was needed not just for PLWHs but for all planning body members. The guide therefore provides information that can be used for providing orientation and ongoing training to all planning body members, including people living with HIV disease.