Disciples HIV-AIDS Ministry, Inc. (DHAM) of Indiana, announced today that it has received a contract in the amount of thirty thousand dollars with the Indiana State Department of Health to provide HIV prevention education, interventional services and testing in the Wabash Valley of western central Indiana. Additionally, DHAM will receive grants totaling forty thousand dollars from private business organizations.

This partnership is a culmination of an eighteen month joint project between The AIDS Ministry Network of Disciples Home Missions and members of Central Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ) in Terre Haute, Indiana. When members of Central Christian Church noticed a gap in HIV/STD prevention education, they reached out to Wabash Valley PATH, a local not-for-profit and Disciples Home Missions. The AIDS Ministry Network worked with the group providing guidance and technical assistance. “The AIDS Ministry Network helped us realize our mission. We received help writing our mission statement and by-laws, incorporating, receiving our not-for-profit designation from the IRS, and assistance with writing our first state proposal” stated Mary Seybold, a Prevention Specialist and certified HIV Counselor and Tester.

“The state contract and private funding are examples of how faith based organizations, government entities, and private business can find synergy in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States” Jody Grieb, Volunteer Director of the AIDS Ministry Network told participants at an HIV Prevention Training recently at the offices of the Christian Church in Indiana.

Disciples HIV-AIDS Ministry will provide education in the form of seminars and workgroups in Clay, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo Counties in Indiana surrounding the city of Terre Haute. Staff will also conduct the ‘Popular Opinion Leader’ intervention. ‘Popular Opinion Leader’ or ‘POL’ is a community-level HIV prevention intervention designed to identify, enlist, and train peer opinion leaders to encourage safer sexual norms and behaviors within their social networks of friends and acquaintances through risk reduction conversations.

The private grants from Starbucks, Walgreens, and other donors will enable DHAM to provide testing through the six county area using their mobile HIV testing unit, a cargo van, converted for the specific use of HIV prevention and testing. DHAM is staffed by a full time program manager, and utilizes volunteers and AmeriCorps members from Indiana State University Sycamore Corps.

Disciples HIV-AIDS Ministry is a joint project of Wabash Valley PATH and Disciples Home Missions. Disciples Home Missions is the enabling and coordinating arm of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in North America.