Course Description

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; and establish an effective, working relationship with the Linkage Coordinator (LC).

Course Objectives

• Summarize the ARTAS strategy
• Summarize the key components of the client session
• Demonstrate skills necessary to complete the client session
• Conduct a strengths assessment
• Prepare a client for transition, regardless if linked to care or not
• Debrief after a medical appointment

Target Audience

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.

Course Description

This foundational training for HIV prevention outreach staff is designed to strengthen community-driven HIV prevention efforts. Participants will build the knowledge and skills needed to identify, engage, and collaborate with community partners and trusted spaces that support HIV testing, PrEP and PEP awareness, linkage to care, retention in services, sexual health education, and other services. The training emphasizes relationship-building strategies that help organizations expand the reach and impact of HIV prevention services within priority populations.

Course Objectives

Upon completing the course, participants will be able to:

• Define community engagement
• Identify existing and potential partners using an assets and opportunities map
• Develop messaging for community members and partners
• Develop a Community Engagement Action Plan

Target Audience

Health education, outreach workers, HIV testers, HIV navigation workers, linkage-to-care providers, and other HIV prevention staff working directly with communities, CBO managers*.

*CBO managers can attend this training to be supportive of their staff by fortifying (i.e. changing policies, practices expectations, and reiterating) learned knowledge and skills gained during the training.

Course Description

This interactive training is designed for members of the HIV prevention workforce who lead trainings, workshops, and group discussions. Participants will develop the facilitation skills needed to deliver engaging and effective learning experiences focused on HIV prevention, sexual health, and linkage-to-care services.

Through hands-on practice, skill-building activities, and real-world scenarios, participants will learn how to communicate HIV prevention information clearly and confidently, foster trust and meaningful participation, and navigate sensitive discussions with professionalism and empathy. The training also emphasizes strategies for creating inclusive, culturally responsive learning environments that support behavior change strengthen community engagement, and promote healthier outcomes for individuals and communities.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Describe the five stages of the Experiential Learning Module (ELM)
• Differentiate between facilitation and presenting in terms of roles and behaviors
• Apply the four adult learning principles when planning and facilitating group sessions
• Demonstrate facilitation techniques that support participant involvement and promote skill retention

Target Audience

New and experienced facilitators who deliver health-related information to groups of people.

Course Description

Motivational interviewing is an incredibly versatile skill set which can be used to assist clients throughout their challenges with behavioral change. This synchronous virtual course on Motivational Interviewing (MI) will introduce learners to the foundational content and skills of MI. During this multisession course we’ll describe Motivational Interviewing, explore its effectiveness, and review all the elements and skills necessary to utilize MI. This course will be divided into four 90-minute sessions, presented over two days, that will provide learners with the opportunity to practice the fundamental skills necessary for applying MI in their client interactions.

This ZOOM based - live course will utilize a variety of adult learning methodologies including lectures, group discussions, video forum and role plays.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Discuss how MI helps support your clients
• Describe at least two ways that MI’s effectiveness has been applied in HIV Prevention and care
• List the four elements of MI
• Demonstrate the ability to apply the four elements of MI

Training Audience

The Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing for HIV course is designed to provide foundational information and tools for providers new to MI who wish to develop their understanding of Motivational Interviewing to improve their client provider relationships.

The recommended training audience includes staff from:

• Community-based organizations
• Health departments
• Health care organizations implementing HIV programs and services

Course Description

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.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Explain how navigation services support at-risk populations (persons living with HIV and high-risk negative people) obtain better health outcomes
• Name the component of the HIV navigation services protocol
• Describe how navigators work as part of a professional team to support a client through the HIV Care continuum
• Identify the required core competencies and knowledge of HNS
• Apply the skills and knowledge of HNS
• List key areas of need for professional development of navigators
• Identify next steps to enhance organizational capacity
• Describe how quality assurance components support clients, navigators and agencies

Target Audience

The recommended training audience includes staff from:

• Community-based organizations
• Health Departments
• Health care organizations implementing HIV programs and services
• General navigation programs that seek to incorporate HIV navigation services as an additional component to their existing navigation services

Course Description

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.

Course Objectives

• Utilize communication techniques to successfully build rapport with clients
• Understand the window period and communicate retesting messages
• Deliver the HIV rapid testing Six-Step Protocol to individuals in nonclinical settings
• Improve the ability to link clients who are living with, or at high risk for HIV, into care and prevention services

Target Audience

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.

Course Description

This two-hour, virtual instructor-led course is designed for professionals who provide HIV prevention, care, and support services. Participants will be introduced to the concept of syndemics - the interaction of multiple, overlapping health, social, structural, and environmental conditions that contribute to increased HIV vulnerability and poorer health outcomes.

Through interactive discussions and real-world examples, participants will explore how factors such as poverty, stigma, housing instability, substance use, mental health, challenges, and limited access to healthcare intersect to influence HIV risk, prevention access, engagement in care, and overall well-being. The course will also examine how these interconnected conditions disproportionately affect communities most impacted by HIV.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training, learners will be able to:

• Describe the difference between a syndemic and co-occuring conditions
• Explain three reasons why recognizing syndemics in their community is important
• Describe at least two examples of syndemics

Target Audience

This training is recommended for clinical staff, health educators, outreach workers, HIV testers, HIV navigation workers and linkage-to-care workers.

Course Description

This Training of Facilitators program prepares participants to deliver Personalized Cognitive Counseling (PCC) intervention, an evidence-based HIV prevention strategy designed to support clients in identifying thoughts and behaviors associated with HIV risk and safer decision-making. Participants develop the counseling and facilitation skills needed to support HIV testing, sexual health conversations, and risk-reduction planning.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Define the three key terms of PCC
• List the six Core Elements of PCC
• Name at least three skills needed to successfully complete a PCC session
• Describe the guidelines for making effective referrals
• Demonstrate all six steps of PCC

Target Audience

The primary intended audiences 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.

Prerequisite for this training include completion of the National HIV Learning Center's Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing for HIV training.

Course Description

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.

Course Objectives

• Describe the Social Network Strategy
• Describe the four phrases of the Social Network Strategy
• Draw a Social Network diagram
• Demonstrate the use of program data for program monitoring
• Describe the steps to develop a plan for integrating Social Network Strategy into an existing program

Target Audience

This 2-day training is designed for participants considering using Social Network Strategy for HIV Testing Recruitment at their agency or organization.

Course Description

The Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses course is a single-session, small-group, video-based behavioral intervention designed to strengthen HIV prevention efforts among Hispanic/Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM). The intervention promotes sexual safety, including HIV testing, PrEP and PEP awareness, medication adherence, safer sex practices, and linkage to HIV prevention and care services. Through guided group discussion and video scenarios, participants build skills and strategies to support culturally responsive HIV prevention conversations and engagement within priority communities.

Course Objectives

After participating in this training, participants will be able to:

• Describe the Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses intervention
• Describe the concept of "Sexual Safety"
• Describe the core elements and key characteristics of SBE/NE
• Generate strategies for managing group discussion and keeping the discussion on track
• Generate strategies for talking about sexual safety (HIV Testing, PrEP, PEP), medication adherence, and linkage to care using the intervention video

Target Audience

This course has been developed for staff at health clinics, community-based organizations, health departments, and other agencies who will implement the Sin Buscar Excusas/No Excuses intervention to reach vulnerable men who have sex with Hispanic/Latino men.

Course Description

This TOF program helps participants learn the necessary skills in order to be successful in facilitating the Sister to Sister: TCYH intervention. It is divided into two components: a self-paced eLearning module and a two-session live virtual training. During the two-session live virtual training, participants review key information discussed in the eLearning module, delve deeper into the nine activities that make up the intervention, and practice facilitating the intervention.

For the practice, participants are grouped into trios in order to experience the intervention as the patient, the provider, and an observer. Practicing the intervention builds their confidence in how to deliver the intervention. Experiencing the intervention as the patient gives them a sense of how the intervention might be received. Observing the intervention is essential; it allows participants to gain a better understanding of the tone, body language, and reactions of the provider and patient.
Throughout the practice, trainers ensure that participants are receiving feedback and affirmations to build their own self-efficacy to deliver the intervention to women who are eligible to participate in their clinics.

Course Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify at least 5 of the core elements of Sister to Sister: TCYH
• List at least 3 of the key characteristics of Sister to Sister: TCYH
• List the 9 activities of Sister to Sister: TCYH and describe how the activities help providers build patients' self-efficacy
• Practice delivering the Sister to Sister: TCYH intervention

Target Audience

Women who will implement Sister to Sister: TCYH. Ideally, training participants would be working as providers, social workers, peer navigators, or linkage coordinators in settings such as family planning clinics and other reproductive health care clinics.

Course Description

This virtual instructor-led training prepares clinic staff to implement the Stay Connected intervention to improve retention in HIV care and support long-term HIV treatment and prevention outcomes. Participants will build skills to create welcoming patient experiences, reinforce engagement in care, and support viral suppression as a key component of HIV prevention.

Training Goals

• Provide information on Stay Connected and its role in care retention
• Improve the ability of staff to deliver brief, positive, welcoming messages to patients
• Equip the clinical staff with skills to deliver Stay Connected messages to PWH

Course Objectives

By the end of the training, clinic staff will be able to:

• Identify the goals of Stay Connected
• Describe the findings of the Stay Connected study and its impact on patient retention
• Explain the roles that clinic staff have in retaining patients in care
• Identify role-specific Stay Connected messages

Target Audience

This instruction-led training course is intended for all clinic staff who work at clinics that with to improve the retention of their patients in HIV care. It is important for clinic managers to receive this training since they will oversee and monitor the program to ensure that all clinic staff deliver retention messages appropriately.

Course Description

This training equips Retention Specialists with the skills needed to support people with HIV in staying engaged in medical care, improving health outcomes and advancing HIV prevention goals through sustained viral suppression. Participants will learn motivational interviewing and patient engagement strategies that strengthen retention in care and reduce barriers to ongoing treatment adherence.

Training Goals

• To describe the roles and responsibilities of the Retention Specialist in improving retention among patients in the clinic
• To prepare the Retention Specialist to utilize the skills and strategies of Motivational Interviewing (MI) to provide face-to-face personalized meetings and interim phone calls to patients to improve retention in care

Course Objectives

By the end of the training, the Retention Specialist will be able to:

• Explain why it is important for PWH to attend medical appointments and be retained in care
• Describe components of the Stay Connected intervention
• Explain the role of the Retention Specialist
• Discuss key implementation aspects of Stay Connected that involve Retention Specialists

Target Audience

This course is intended for clinic staff who provide face-to-face personalized meetings at each HIV primary visit as well as interim phone calls to improve retention among patients.

Prerequisites for this training include completion of the National HIV Learning Center's Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing for HIV training and the Stay Connected for Your Health (All Staff) training.