 High unemployment, lack of education, health insurance and trust in the health
system have placed minority communities at risk for acquiring serious health
problems. The Urban League addresses health issue through the following programs:
Link-to-Care, which is funded by Texas Department of State
Health Services, offers HIV-positive ex-offenders, who are recently released
to Dallas County, immediate access to primary care utilizing the Texas
HIV Medication Program. All clients are eligible for medical and/or psychosocial
case management services through the Urban League and its partner Parkland Health
and Hospital System. The Urban League also partners with the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston and Dallas County jails for referrals. Participation
is voluntary and all services are free.
Community Promise is a community-level HIV prevention and
intervention program that targets intravenous drug users and trains them as peer
advocate volunteers to help impact changes in the community. It improves health
status by promoting healthy behaviors. This program is funded by the Texas Department
of State Health Services.
Prevention Case Management, also funded
by the Texas Department of State Health Services, provides intensive, on-going
support, individualized prevention counseling and service brokerage. It targets
persons, whether positive, negative or status unknown, who have or are likely
to have difficulty initiating or sustaining practices that prevent the acquisition,
transmission or re-infection of HIV.
Abstinence Program provides educational and parenting classes
for youth and parents that address teen pregnancy, drug abuse, STDs and HIV/AIDS.
Its goal is to decrease early sexual encounters and teen pregnancy among high
risk youth and educate them and their parents about the risks. The Texas Department
of State Health Services has supported this program for two years.
Urban Health Solutions identifies gaps in
service strategy for substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis among minority youth
and re-entry populations; offers Ora Quick Rapid Response HIV testing; and sustains
an overall strategy for reintegrating these at-risk populations in the community
service delivery network. The program is funded by SAMHSA-CSAP.
Citywide HIV/AIDS Education, Outreach, and Prevention Program includes
small group level HIV/AIDS education sessions and outreach to adolescents ages
13 to 19 in the City of Dallas who are in households whose income is at least
51% at or below poverty level. Individuals targeted are adolescents of all ethnicities
who are sexually active and engage in unprotected sex or are not sexually active
but feel pressured by peers to become sexual active. |
