We have an exciting opportunity to participate as a community partner in this year’s AIDsWalk Northwest, happening on September 9th, 2023.
Help us fundraise and walk with Familias!
AIDsWalk is Cascade-AIDs-Projects (CAP) annual fundraising event. HIV/AIDS continues to impact our community here in Oregon and Nationally. As you know, Familias en Acción started its HIV/STI Sexual Health program in 2020 in order to bring culturally-relevant education and increase prevention efforts for our Latine community.
We invite you and your families, friends, and other social networks to help support both CAP and Familias by fundraising for this important cause. 60% of all donations will go back to Familias en Acción to support our work and mission!
Fundraising is really simple. If you’d like to help you have the following options:
Share the Familias fundraising page with your social networks. People can learn more about this fundraiser and donate the amount of their choice.
Create your own fundraising page & share it with your networks (it’s easy + we’re here to help!). Having your own fundraising page is more personal and allows you to include a message about why this work is important to YOU! Join the Familias team here and then create your fundraising page. All funds you personally raise will be linked to both your profile and our Familias team page!
The Familias team page is now live, so feel free to share this with your networks or make a personal donation to help us get started! Attached is an example of an email blurb you can use to share with your network (you can personalize it as you choose).
Interested in walking with us at this year’s event? In addition to fundraising, Familias is inviting staff, board members, friends and other community partners to walk with us! If you are interested in walking, please fill out this form.
Last year’s event was a blast! We hope you will consider joining us for our 2nd Annual AIDSwalk!
**Familias adopted the term Latiné to describe our communities in an inclusive manner. We recognize that there is no single term that will encompass everyone.**
In April 2020, Familias en Acción (Familias) created its HIV/ STI Sexual Health Program. The program is part of Oregon Health Authority’s END HIV Oregon strategy. In Oregon, HIV cases have increased in urban, rural and frontier areas across the state (see the “Why HIV prevention” section below to see the stats).
The increase in new infections in our communities can be attributed, in part, to the complexity of this issue. Acknowledging this complexity points our efforts to a range of interconnected tactics, each equally critical to eliminating HIV in Oregon’s Latiné populations. For example, we must consider: the influence of socio economic factors; stalled prevention efforts and the need to increase accessibility to prevention, screening, and treatment; how behavior influences risk; stigma and its implications; and how community leadership can be developed.
We know we can’t end HIV alone. Community participation is essential in formulating a more effective strategy to combat HIV in Oregon and long-term community engagement is critical to sustaining the involvement of communities in the design and delivery of the strategy.
Why HIV Prevention?
Although testing is low, new HIV diagnoses are high among Latine people in Oregon, particularly males. Here are some current statistics:
Although 12.7% of Oregon’s population is Latine, 24.6% of HIV cases diagnosed between 2018-2022 were Latiné – in other words, 1 in 4 people diagnosed with HIV in recent years were Latine.
Rates of new HIV diagnosis among Latine people increased by more than 50% in 2022 compared to the previous 3 years.
Increases of HIV diagnosis among Latine people increased in urban, rural, and frontier areas of Oregon – with the largest increases in rural and frontier areas.
Rates of new HIV diagnosis are more than 10 times higher among Latine males than Latine females.
We can change these trends- prevention works!
PrEP, taken as a daily pill or periodic injection, is 99% effective in preventing HIV transmission. People living with HIV, who take HIV medication and reach undetectable viral loads have zero chance of transmitting HIV to their sex partners (this is called U=U or Undetectable = Untransmittable). The Oregon Health Plan and most health insurance plans cover these medicines to prevent and treat HIV; the Healthier Oregon Program provides coverage to many people living in Oregon who do not have documentation. Programs like CAREAssist and HIV case management help people in all Oregon communities start and stay on medications, so they can live longer, healthier lives.
Community-based messages and programs, delivered by people and agencies trusted by Latine community members, are urgently needed. We can end new HIV transmissions in Oregon!
We are excited to launch our first quarter of learning and engagement activities on February 14th! For our first quarter, our theme and topics will focus on addressing HIV and STI stigma.
Have you ever thought about how HIV and STI stigma can impact both mental health and sexual health outcomes? Or how factors like race, ethnicity and culture can contribute to or influence stigma?
Stigma often comes from a lack of understanding or fear driven by misleading or inaccurate information. We will explore how stigma shows up in our everyday lives, the lives of our peers, our families and our friends. We will share stories and ideas for way’s to destigmatize, including using people first language where we center the person and not their illness, behavior, or disability, etc.
What do we hope to achieve?
A greater awareness of unique issues and needs among Latiné communities to address HIV prevention, screening, and treatment in regions across Oregon.
Deeper connections and relationships amongst each other to support potential, future collaboration.
What do we hope you learn?
Define taboo and stigma
Identify the negative impacts of stigma on mental, emotional, physical health.
Provide examples of myths or misconceptions that contribute to stigma
Translate foundational learning to lived experience
Discuss how to address and decrease individual and cultural stigmas around taboo topics including sexual health, HIV, substance use, mental health, etc.
Details: Latine and HIV Collaborative Virtual Learning Series on HIV Stigma
Description: Join our panel of guest presenters to learn more about cultural Stigmas and its impacts on mental, emotional and physical health and wellbeing and hear from other community leaders across the state. This session will include an opportunity for audience participation!
Meet our guest speakers
Amador Perez (HE/HIM/HIS)
Harm Reduction Specialist
Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living
Richard Rojas-Perez (HE/HIM/HIS)
Assistant Director of HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction
Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living
**Language access: This session will be facilitated in English with Spanish interpretation available. Breakout sessions will be facilitated in both English and Spanish- all are welcome!**
Keep an eye out for our February newsletter and check back on our website where we will share more about the upcoming events in this 3-part series:
March 2024: Community Stories: Stories of how stigma “shows up” in our lives as Latine Community Members
April 2024: Community Conversation: How do we address stigma as Latine community members?
Familias en Acción is committed to continue to provide opportunities for shared learning around HIV prevention. We invite individuals and organizations in Oregon to participate and share ideas for doing this work collectively. Stay tuned to learn of upcoming learning events and opportunities to stay engaged: Sign up for our monthly newsletter!
Do you have questions or want to see how you can participate? Contact Ayla Rosen (ayla@familiasenaccion.org)
This is our 1st of 3 activities in our 3-part learning series on HIV stigma. Everyone is invited to participate and learn as we center Latine community voices and experiences.
Ayla Rosen, MPH and Ingrid Lopez, CHW will be presenting a session on Latine and HIV/STI Community Education and Prevention at this year’s Western Forum in Seattle, WA.
Registration is open for Familias’ sexual health education community classes, Me Cuido, Te Cuido. Classes are virtual, in Spanish and offered to community members across Oregon
To support our learning journey, we are focused on eliminating gaps in service utilization by connecting people to resources for prevention, care, and treatment. Listed here are links to a curated excellent resources:
Our HIV/ STI Sexual Health Program: Me Cuido, Te Cuido, has had a very busy summer! In May we hired our new program coordinator, Ingrid Lopez. This summer, our team has been out in the community attending community health fairs and other events to provide information on sexual health resources including HIV/ STI testing with CAP. Testing at CAP is free and available at several locations. You can get more info and sign up for a test with our HIV Prevention Coordinator here (form in Spanish).
Ingrid at Bridging Cultures Event: Feria Familiar de Salud, Molalla Oregon (8.6.22)
Beaverton Pride mobile HIV testing Van- June 26th
Coming Fall 2022 – Training for Health Educators/Promotores in Eastern Oregon
Familias is looking to build more community and strengthen our relationships with Latine organizations in Eastern Oregon as we prepare for our first in-person training!
This fall, we will be offering an in person training, in Spanish, for health educators, community health workers and promotores to learn more about HIV/STI prevention. If you or your organization would like to participate, or to learn more about the training, please submit an interest form. Training date and location are still being confirmed.
In the 5th year since launching the End HIV Oregon initiative, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and its many community partners moved forward towards our shared goal of eliminating new HIV transmissions in Oregon. The following describes some key End HIV Oregon activities. For additional information, please visit EndHIVOregon.org
Click the images below for the full report in English or in Spanish:
Click below to read about Familias en Accións’ contributions in the “Spotlight: Community-led engagement”:
April 20th marked our one year anniversary for our program Me Cuido, Te Cuido!
We have begun training facilitators in Washington County and are thankful for their excitement to start community classes on sexual health. We are also moving forward with training facilitators statewide to include Latinx communities outside of Washington County.
If your organization is interested in our Me Cuido, Te Cuido training please visit our program website below.
Have you registered for our 2021 Latino Health Equity Conference?
Our virtual bilingual conference is coming up on June 24th and 25th. We are also excited to announce our keynote speakers for this year! Our keynotes will focus on the intersection of HIV and COVID-19, the importance of including the transgender community in conversations about HIV, and normalizing conversations on sexual health in our faith communities.
Register now and take advantage of our early bird benefits, more information on our conference site below!
