Our Mission

The Iowa HIV Prevention Community Planning Group seeks to promote, through an ongoing participatory process, effective HIV programming in Iowa in order to reduce the further spread of HIV infection and to provide access to services for those already infected.

Our History

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first mandated community planning for HIV prevention in 1993. The CDC’s commitment to strengthen community-specific HIV prevention interventions was behind the CPG mandate.

The process is designed to be a collaborative effort between communities and health departments. Shared decision making is essential to community planning.

Pieces of the Puzzle

The community planning process includes the following tasks:

• Assessing the extent of the HIV epidemic,
• Assessing the existing prevention resources,
• Identifying unmet HIV prevention and care needs,
• Defining the potential impact of specific prevention strategies,
• Prioritizing HIV prevention and care needs,
• Developing a locally specific prevention and care plan, and
• Evaluating the planning process.