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AIDS Project of Southern Vermont in
Brattleboro; AIDS Community Resource
Network (ACoRN), in Lebanon, NH, and
serving a bi-state clientele; and R.U.l.2?
Queer Community Center in Burlington.

Of particular concern were new
requirements to use abstinence education
materials.for prevention and to say that con-
doms are less than 100 percent effective at
preventing the transmission of HIV. “To our
knowledge, condoms are 99 percent effective
when used correctly every time. We want to
be able to encourage people to use condoms,”
Farrell said.

_ Among the agency’s other concerns -
over the new mandates were intrusive data
gathering, disclosure of potentially identifying
information, and the imposition of programs

_ normed on urban populations.

 
  
   

BYEUAN BEAR

,, urlington — Vermont CARES ,

. » BDirector Kendall Farrell announced in
-’ mid-September that the agency would
forego the option of applying for close to
$100,000 in funding from the federal Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) administered
through the Vermont Department of Health '

,_ (VDH). The figure represents about 12.5 per-
A cent of the agency’s total budget. Farrell said .
the premier AIDS/HIV agency in Vermont is
turning down its chance of funding because of
increased and intrusive reporting requirements

' and the need tosubmit prevention materials ,
-for state approval.

“We cannot take this money and not. I
compromise our principles,” Farrell said in a .
— phone interview. “Based on our 20 years of

experience in delivering HIV/AIDS services,

'‘ we know that these additional requirements‘, ,
I will increase the barriers to getting testedand ,

receiving prevention information.” i ‘

’ ' The decision involved both board
".~"-,.‘i;;member_s and staff in what Farrell character--

ized as a “thoughtful process.” Among the 711
board members, she said, are “a number who
* are living with the virus,” and thus have aper-, “
sonal knowledge of the challenges facing peo-
ple living with HIV/AIDS; .' ,
4 , ' Farrell said Vermont CARES is
: , “looking to the community to step up to the
plate” in increasing donations to replace the
VDH/CDC funding the agency has declined to
apply‘ for. A mailing to donors was due out at
press time, and the agency’s annual charity
walk took place the weekend after the decision
was announced via a press release and‘ a full-
page ad in the news and entertainment weekly
Seven Days. - A ‘
’While the prevention funding was

  

- Passing Through
Kurt Kleier, the recently hired Vermont
Department of Health AIDS Section Chief,
says the state agency shares many of Vermont
CARES’ concerns and hasn’t been shy about
passing ‘them along to the CDC. “The first
thing I did when I was hired was to send a let-
ter to the ‘CDC expressing our concern that
one of our major service providers was not
-applying,” Kleier said. “Kendall [Farrell] and I
are on the same page, and she understands that
her struggle is not with us, that these are CDC
requirements,” essentially a pass-through.
Kleier, who comes to VDI-I from
Missouri by way of Alaska, said he had expe-
rience in “what is called ‘suppressing data
identification,” that is, in a’ rural population,
finding ways to prevent someone from figur-
ing out who a given person is through infor-
mation on age, race, gender, and so on. “I can
knowledgably go to bat for those concerns,"
he said. '

    
 

  

' not a sure thing, Farrell said success /was like-

ly, given Vermont CARES’ long history and

’ extensive experience in delivering servicesto

people at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS,
including men who have sex with men
(MSM), intravenous drug users of any ‘gender .
(IDU), and people who engage in high-risk -
sexual activities with multiple

partners. - -
However, three other HIV preven-
tion programs are still in the running for what
was estimated to be two funding “slots": the

“'5“'e.

CAE Syi
to VDH Funding

Three Agencies Stay the Course;
Message Limits,-Intrusive Data
Gathering Prompt Decision N

One of the issues, he added, is that
the grants for 2005 are the beginning of a
three-year grant cycle. If an agency opts out of
the process now, it can’t change its mind until
applications‘ are due for the 2008 grants.
Kleier disputed claims that urban

programs won’t work in rural states, citing his
own experience with an AIDS service organi-
zation in Anchorage (population 260,000)
using programs found effective in Los Angeles
(population just under
4 million). “We’re not

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