Below you will find a list of courses available through the National HIV Classroom Learning Center.
To request a training, email us at RequestCDCTraining@caiglobal.org or request through the CDC CBA Tracking System.
To see which training programs are currently being offered check out our training calendar.
Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Access to Medication (ARTAS) is an individual-level, multi-session, time-limited intervention with the goal of linking recently diagnosed persons with HIV to medical care soon after receiving their respective test result. ARTAS is based on the Strengths-based Case Management (SBCM) model, which is rooted in Social Cognitive Theory) particularly self-efficacy) and Humanistic Psychology. SBCM is a model that encourages the client to identify and use personal strengths; create goals for himself/herself; and establish an effective, working relationship with the Linkage Coordinator (LC).
This training is intended for individuals who will be responsible for conducting the ARTAS sessions with clients, (i.e., Linkage Coordinator). Linkage Coordinators should have experience providing case management or social services. Ideally, participants should include experienced case managers, social workers, and/or HIV test counselors.
CLEAR: Choosing Life: Empowerment! Action! Results! is an evidence-based, health promotion intervention for males and females ages 16 and older with HIV. CLEAR is a client-centered program delivered one-on-one using cognitive behavioral techniques to change behavior. CLEAR enables prevention counselors to individually tailor the intervention to address the unique needs of each client and provides clients with the skills necessary to be able to make healthy choices for their lives.
The intended audience for this course includes staff from community-based organizations, health departments, clinics, and other agencies serving people living with HIV. Because CLEAR is an intensive one-on-one intervention, counselors who implement CLEAR must have excellent client-centered counseling skills. It is recommended that CLEAR be implemented by counselors with a clinical background (i.e. by counselors who receive structured training from licensed clinicians in counseling). At the very least, CLEAR counselors must have access to clinical supervision.
ConnectHIP is a three-session, relationship-based intervention that teaches couples techniques and skills to enhance the quality of their relationship, communication, and shared commitment to safer behaviors. Testing for HIV/STDs and medication adherence within a continuum of care are part of the ConnectHIP intervention.
By the end of the training, participants will be able to:
This training is intended for couples who had been in a relationship for at least 6 months and were committed to remaining in the relationship for the next year. The couples also met additional criteria for being at high risk for sexual transmission of HIV due to their own or their partner’s suspected risk behaviors (e.g., sex outside of the relationship, or injecting drug use).
Healthy Relationships is a five-session, small group intervention for men and women living with HIV/AIDS. It is based on Social Cognitive Theory and focuses on developing skills and building self- efficacy and positive expectations about new behaviors through modeling behaviors and practicing new skills. Decision-making and problem-solving skills are developed to enable participants to make informed and safe decisions about disclosure and behavior. The sessions create a context where people can interact, examine their risks, develop skills to reduce their risks, and receive feedback from others.
This training is intended for skilled counselor/mental health professional facilitators from various backgrounds and education, and peer facilitators.
The HIV Navigation Services (HNS) course is designed to improve navigation skills for those delivering prevention services to people living with HIV and high-risk HIV-negative individuals. This comprehensive course package is for service providers who want to know more about navigation skills, how navigation fits in the overall field of HIV prevention, structural components of a navigation program, and professional conduct.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
The recommended training audience includes staff from:
HIV Testing in Nonclinical Settings is CDC’s latest HIV testing training for nonclinical settings. This training reflects scientific advances and evidence informed updates as expressed in CDC’s guidance: Implementing HIV Testing in Nonclinical Settings: A Guide For HIV Testing Providers (2016). Key influences on this curriculum have been shifts in HIV prevention, care, and treatment that have occurred since the Fundamentals of HIV Prevention Counseling training, and the policies that followed. This training has a streamlined Six-Step Protocol with greater emphasis on serostatus specific referrals and active linkage. A person’s current circumstances are explored, with less extensive pre- and post-test counseling.
This training is intended for who plan to provide HIV testing in nonclinical settings or program managers who will be overseeing HIV test providers. Participants should have a basic understanding of HIV transmission and individual HIV testing.
CDC encourages HIV testing in pharmacies as a promising model to reach previously undiagnosed persons living with HIV. Through its partnership with Denver Prevention Training Center (PTC), CDC has developed a new curriculum to train pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nurses, doctors, and pharmacy retail/clerical staff.
This training is intended for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nurses, doctors, and pharmacy retail/clerical staff.
Many Men, Many Voices (3MV) is a 7-session, group level intervention program to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among black men who have sex with men (MSM) who may or may not identify themselves as gay. The intervention addresses factors that influence the behavior of black MSM: cultural, social, and religious norms; interactions between HIV and other STDs; sexual relationship dynamics; and the social influences that racism and homophobia have on HIV risk behaviors.
The 3MV intervention targets gay men of color. The intervention also targets men on the ‘down low’ with or without female partners (i.e., men of color who have sex with other men but do not identify as gay or bisexual).
The Mpowerment Project was developed for young gay and bisexual men (YGBSMSM) of diverse backgrounds ages 18-29. It focuses on increasing HIV testing; decreasing sexual risk behavior among HIV-positive (i.e., prevention with positives), HIV-negative, and YGBMSM who do not know their HIV-status; and distributing condoms and lubricant.
The Mpowerment project targets YGBMSM (ages 18-29).
Partnership for Health (PfH) uses message framing, repetition, and reinforcement during patient visits to increase HIV positive patients’ knowledge, skills, and motivations to practice safer sex. The program is designed to improve patientprovider communication about safer sex, disclosure of HIV serostatus, and HIV prevention. Implementation of PfH includes development of clinic and staff “buy-in” and training.
Personalized Cognitive Counseling (PCC) is an intervention designed to reduce sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM) who are repeat testers for HIV. It encourages clients to identify thoughts & feelings during a recent episode of condomless anal intercourse (CAI) in order to reduce risk in future situations.
The primary intended audience for this course is individuals experienced in HIV counseling and testing from community-based organizations, HIV/AIDS service agencies, and health departments with existing HIV testing programs. Prerequisites for participation in the training include at least one year of experience conducting HIV-related testing and education.
Popular Opinion Leader (POL) is a community-level intervention that involves identifying, enlisting, and training key opinion leaders to encourage safer sexual norms and behaviors within their social networks through risk-reduction conversations.
This course is designed for people who are preparing (or considering) to implement the POL intervention in their own communities, or those individuals who might be tasked with overseeing, evaluating, or providing guidance or assistance to any such implementation.
Project START is an individual-level, multisession intervention for people being released from a correctional facility and returning to the community. It is based on the conceptual framework of Incremental Risk Reduction, and focuses on increasing clients' awareness of their HIV, STI, and Hepatitis risk behaviors after release and providing them with tools and resources to reduce their risk.
Project START is for any individual who is being released from a correctional facility back into the community.
Community PROMISE is an effective, community-level HIV/STD prevention intervention that relies on role model stories and peer advocates from social networks (e.g. peers from clinic or community) to reduce HIV risk behaviors and increase engagement related to the HIV continuum of care. The intervention is based on behavioral theories including Stages of Change. PROMISE begins with a community identification process to collect and analyze information about the risk networks, sex and drug risk behaviors, indicators related to the HIV continuum of care, and identification of determinants of risk. This helps agencies identify and intervene with the intervention populations and appropriately tailor the intervention to specific network needs. Members of the intervention population who have made positive behavior change and/or engage in HIV care including adherence to medication are interviewed and role models stories are written based upon the interviews. The stories are personal accounts about how and why they took steps to reduce risk and engage in HIV care and being adherent to medication and the resulting positive effects on their lives. Peer advocates from the intervention population are recruited and trained to distribute the role model stories and prevention materials within their social networks. New role model stories are written based on continuous formative research that reflects behavior change within the target population.
Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses is a singlesession, small-group, video-based behavioral intervention that aims to increase sexual safety and HIV testing and care among Hispanic/Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM). Sexual safety includes having fewer partners, using condoms consistently, engaging in less risky sexual behaviors, using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) or postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) as needed, and communicating with one’s partner about monogamy or HIV status. Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses can be implemented in various settings, including clinics and community agencies. Group sessions last approximately 60 minutes and include three core elements.
The Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses intervention targets Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men and other MSM who are 18 years and older.
Sister to Sister is a brief (30-45 minute), one-on-one, skills-based HIV and sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk-reduction behavioral intervention that is delivered during the course of a routine medical visit by a female health care provider. The purpose of Sister to Sister is to:
provide intensive, culturally sensitive health information to empower and educate women
help women understand the various behaviors that put them at risk for HIV and other STDs
enhance women’s knowledge, beliefs, confidence and skills to help reduce their risk for STDs, especially HIV
The intervention is highly structured and implemented in a primary health care setting by nurses, health educators, or other professional clinic staff using a scripted teaching guide. It is educational, engaging, and gender-appropriate and uses videos, brainstorming, demonstrations, and skills-building activities. It is designed to be easily integrated into the health care provider’s standard clinical practice. As such, Sister to Sister is an effective tool for addressing the needs of both patients and providers in primary health care settings.
Originally designed for African American women, Sister to Sister is for high-risk sexually active women 18-45 years old who have male partners and are attending primary health care clinics.
Social Network Strategy (SNS) for HIV Testing Recruitment is an evidence supported approach to engaging and motivating a person to accept a service. SNS is particularly useful to recruit persons at risk for HIV into testing.
This 2-day training is designed for participants considering using Social Network Strategy for HIV Testing Recruitment at their agency or organization.
The Stay Connected intervention is a comprehensive evidence-based behavioral intervention designed to increase retention in care for people with HIV (PWH). Retention in HIV medical care is defined as having two or more visits at least 3 months apart during a given year. This intervention requires all members of the healthcare team to deliver brief, positive, welcoming messages to all patients at the clinic. Clinical care staff (primary care providers and clinical support staff) deliver encouraging health messages to patients about the importance of staying in care. The intervention also designates a Retention Specialist to meet with patients experiencing barriers to keeping their appointments. The Retention Specialist focuses on establishing a relationship with patients through three (3) face-to-face sessions at the clinic and phone calls in between appointments and serving as a bridge between the patients and the healthcare providers. The intervention has designated an Administrator/Champion, Clinical Supervisor/Champion, and Intervention Coordinator to support the implementation of Stay Connected.
The Stay Connected intervention supports the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), which is an ambitious plan to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to care, improve the lives of those with HIV, and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Stay Connected increases the likelihood that patients will engage in care and we know that once engaged in care, 93% of patients are prescribed antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART can help people with HIV live healthier, longer lives, and has been shown to reduce sexual transmission of HIV by 96%. Eighty-one percent of patients prescribed ART become virally suppressed, which helps patients live healthy, longer lives and greatly reduces their chances of passing HIV on to others.
Testing Together (TT) occurs when two or more persons who are in—or are planning to be in—a sexual relationship receive all elements of HIV testing and counseling together. This includes HIV prevention counseling, receipt of test results, and linkage to follow-up services. TT has been used as an HIV testing strategy in Africa for more than 20 years and has improved HIV prevention outcomes on the continent. This approach is aligned with the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and High Impact Prevention, and has the potential to contribute to reduced HIV incidence in the United States.
TT services may be offered to any two or more persons in a sexual relationship—or planning to have a sexual relationship—who wish to be tested together. Because TT will have greater impact in geographic areas and among populations with high HIV prevalence, it may be most appropriate in high burden areas and urban centers, and specifically for men who have sex with men (MSM) and other high-risk couples.
Transgender Women Involved in Strategies for Transformation (TWIST) is a peer-led small group-level intervention for transgender women living with HIV aged 18–and older of any race or ethnicity. The intervention reflects the lived experiences of transgender women, and includes their resilience and reclamation in the face of social marginalization. As an adaptation of the WILLOW (Women Involved in Life Learning from Other Women) intervention, TWIST is delivered in four 4-hour sessions to groups of 8–10 transgender women. The intervention emphasizes gender affirmation, informs transgender women how to identify and maintain supportive social networks, teaches coping strategies to reduce life stressors, enhances awareness of HIV transmission risk behaviors, teaches communication skills for negotiating safer sex, reinforces proper and consistent condom use, distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and defines types of abusive relationships and their effect on a transgender woman’s ability to negotiate safer sex practices. The TWIST intervention is not designed to be a “counseling” or “service provision” program for transgender women living with HIV. Rather, it is designed to provide transgender women with information, skills, and strategies to encourage a lifelong commitment to HIV care, treatment, medication adherence, and living well with HIV.
The WILLOW intervention is a small group, socialskills building, and educational intervention for adult women living with HIV. It consists of four 4-hour sessions which are delivered by two trained adult female facilitators, one of whom is a woman living with HIV. The groups consist of 8-10 HIVpositive women and are conducted in a communitybased setting. An adaptation of the SISTA intervention, the goal of WILLOW is to reduce sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV transmission risk behaviors among women living with HIV and AIDS by fostering self and gender pride, social support, increased HIV and STD knowledge and self-efficacy for relationship management, safer sex practices and attitudes, and stress management and reduction. WILLOW has been expanded with the HIP goal to encourage a lifelong commitment for HIV care, treatment, medication adherence, and living well with the disease.
WILLOW is designed for heterosexual women of any race or ethnicity living with HIV or AIDS, who are 18 years or older and who have known their HIV serostatus for at least six months.