Beginning July 1, 2006, A&PI Wellness Center will receive a three-year, $600,000 contract with the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS, HIV Care Branch.

To continue and expand our California Statewide Treatment Education Program (CSTEP) developed in 1997 in collaboration with long-time partner Project Inform. CSTEP’s five levels of training – including certification in English and Spanish – are offered for free and specifically focus on medical and behavioral aspects of HIV disease. CSTEP’s “best practices” approach educates and prepares HIV/health service providers and peer educators to most effectively serve people of color living with HIV in particular and their families.

CSTEP is delivered throughout California in urban, rural and Mexican border areas, and provides 24 trainings to almost 400 participants annually with ongoing treatment updates to the network of ever-growing CSTEP training participants. Over the last six years, CSTEP has trained more than 1,000 service providers, 74% of whom are people of color ((39.9% Latino, 17.7% Black, 8.2% A&PI, 1.3% Native American, 7.5% Multi-Racial). 100% of participants showed an increase in knowledge; 100% self-assessed that CSTEP added to their knowledge and/or skills; and 97.5% indicated that the CSTEP training style encouraged active participation and interaction for optimal learning. For more information, visit cstep.