The S. Patrick Kahozi Institute for HIV/AIDS-related Urban Studies

The Board plans to establish and operate a web-hosted, issues-based blogosphere. Its open but guided environment will serve as a forum where expert insight, research, and open discussion around HIV/AIDS-related matters will be presented and shared. The institute will become a hub whose particular attention to the myriad urban issues surrounding health and social justice within Black and Hispanic communities, will be renowned. We believe that such discussions are critical to fully understanding those infected and affected by HIV disease. Web-based technologies and web-based media will serve as the primary tools for information dissemination.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Our primary focus is inside African-American and Hispanic communities.

We’ll improve communication, education, and awareness in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
We’ll engage through social marketing, fundraising, scholarship endowment and other direct activities.
We’ll deliver well-designed leadership training to organizational leaders and executives; their support teams; and to any other interested individual responsible for providing HIV/AIDS services and assistance to the public.

Nonprofit Leadership Training

We will train new vanguards in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Each new leader will be well-informed and will become the public advocate for change in his/her community.

Rating and Accreditation

We will develop a comprehensive range of evaluation tools that measure the effectiveness of existing HIV/AIDS service providers. As a matter of course, Al Sura will establish an accreditation schema for all HIV/AIDS-related organizations. Our accreditation process will ensure that service providers can be trusted to adequately meet the social, psychological, and medical needs of their clients. The process will also ensure that service providers develop fiduciary soundness with proven abilities to perform efficiently with the public and private pecuniary resources entrusted to them.

Coalition Building

We will connect ethnically and racially diverse minority groups. More importantly, we will forge alliances among minority and majority organizations; all with the ultimate aim of creating the cohesive strategies required to eradicate HIV/AIDS.

Expand HIV/AIDS Funding

We will actively discover new sources of social energy and funding for HIV advocacy, research, and direct services to the men, women—and particularly the many youth who need help. Al Sura pledges to keep allocate no less than 50% of the income from all its revenue sources to direct, program implementation, while keeping administrative costs to <30% and expenditures <20%.

Description of Activities

S. Patrick Kahozi Institute for HIV/AID-related Urban Studies (SPKI)

This information-sharing venue is an institution envisioned by Al Sura. It will be a web-based resource and training center for those working in (and these affected by…) HIV/AIDS within communities of color.

A link to SPKI can be found by clicking www.alsura.org.

The Institute will:

Serve as a media resource for web-based and print articles
Link to sites containing pertinent content
Provide current interviews, information and statistics to bloggers
Promote fundraisers, social events, seminars, and workshops that inspire healthy lifestyles and entertainment for people with HIV/AIDS

In addition, the S. Patrick Kahozi Institute's Leadership Academy will be established to provide training for individuals and groups just entering the field, as well as to those (currently in the field) who need refresheer courses in service delivery, business practice and relevant core competencies.

Nonprofit Leadership Training

As many organizations adjust to the current economic climate, they often find themselves facing pressures from financial contraction, counterbalances by increasing needs for their services. But not only that, many have found that affordable, intra-organizational management training has become more difficult to find.

Al Sura will offer nonprofit organizations with opportunities to refer staff/volunteers to a series of personal and organizational development seminars. These seminars will helf them increase competencies, and will cover a wide range of topics designed to expose, educate and empower participants. They will leave with the knowledge and skills needed for successful nonprofit managment. Competency training is a certification course, generally spanning 6 months. Instruction will occur at the designated Al Sura sites, on pre-defined, monthly training dates, and will also occur at the home organizations of institute attendees, under the supervision of Al Sura trainers. thoroughly familiar with the arear(s) under study. Applications for training will be taken in the fourth quarter of each calendar year; and classes will begin in January of the following year. Training will be completed in June.

Competencies

The competencies are organized into two major categories:
1. Personal Development; for self advancement
2. Professional Development; the core of nonprofit management

Competencies are organized into several subheadings (see Appendix A); and whose order indicates a themed sequence of instruction (that is, moving from general to specific; or from simple to complex).

Knowledge vs. Skill

Competencies are classified as being either:
1. Knowledge (something that someone should know); or
2. Skill (something that someone should be expected to perform proficiently)

Knowledge competencies are acquired by participating in Al Sura-sponsored Leadership Conferences.

Participants may obtain skills independently (through practice in monitored coursework; on-the-job activities; individual mentoring; and student association activities). Skill competencies are generally identifiable through the use of verbs like research, demonstrate, develop, complete, conduct, exhibit, execute, utilize, and negotiate.

The Accreditation Board (Service Delivery and Programmatic Effectiveness Rating)

We will establish a committee of qualified experts who will become Al Sura’s Accreditation Board.

The Board will use competencies, described in our Nonprofit Training curriculum, to review and evaluate the business acumen, as well as the clinical and professional practices of organizations providing services to HIV/AIDS-infected, or affected persons.

The Committee will develop a rating scale that accurately and succinctly describes each organization’s effectiveness in providing client care and other service delivery.Organizations that do poorly during our accreditation review will be given opportunities to enroll their staff/volunteers in leadership training, designed by Al Sura. Following evaluation, each organization reviewed will receive a detailed “Road to Improvement” strategic plan. This plan will be individually tailored to help groups improve their ratings and achieve greater success in future accreditation reviews.

Coalition Building

We will take active responsibility for engaging HIV/AIDS organizations in forming strategic partnerships and coalitions. Our goal will be to help groups work together; build consensus; and coalesce strategies for inter-agency resource sharing, learning opportunities, and service distribution techniques.

Expand HIV/AIDS Funding

By establishing ourselves as an organization of transparency, professionalism and integrity, Al Sura is well-positioned to solicit new funding from non-traditional foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Al Sura’s is committed to helping HIV/AIDS organizations (especially those serving communities of color) to:

1. Discover fresh sources of volunteers
2. Reengage and reignite personal activism; and
3. Renew the social energy required to better fulfill their missions

We will share information on the most current systems, as well as the most effective techniques being engaged (industry-wide) to expand well-needed services into new demographics.

Our website, www.alsura.org, will become a one-stop fundraising and events guide for anyone seeking meaningful ways to participate in, and contribute to, the cause.