Blurred Borders - International Community Foundation

SYHC participates in the Southern California Border HIV/AIDS Project (funded by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services), which improves HIV/AIDS outreach, access to
testing and primary care services, and cross-border linkages for people who live or work in
the US/Mexico border region of San Diego or Imperial County. It is a truly collaborative
project whose core participants are SYHC (as the lead community agency), UCSD Center for
Community Health/Division of Community Pediatrics (which conducts program evaluation),
and community health centers (CHCs) in the Southern California border region. The Project
also plans to develop a binational referral program so that patients moving from one side to
the other side of the border will still be able to continue to receive care. Four CHCs serve as
service delivery hubs to conduct outreach and coordinate systems of care: Clinicas de Salud
del Pueblo serves as the CHC hub for Imperial County, SYHC serves the South Bay, Family
Health Centers serves Central San Diego, and Vista Community Clinic serves North County.
In the first year of the Border HIV/AIDS Project (2000-2001), each CHC chose a specific atrisk
population that it would target to serve, and identified additional staff needs. This strategy
was chosen based on the realization that there are different cultures within the Latino
population along the border. The SYHC, which had already been providing targeted services
to Latino men who have sex with men and Latinas, maintain its target population as such;
Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo targets farm workers; Family Health Centers, a federally
designated community and migrant health center, is targeting youth sex workers; and Vista
Community Clinic focuses on Latina sex workers, farm workers, and newly-immigrated men
who have sex with men.
The Southern California Border HIV/AIDS Project does not end at the border, however. The
Project is currently developing a comprehensive resource guide to provide complete
information about health and other HIV-related resources along the border in both the US
and Mexico. The guide will enable HIV positive men and women find appropriate services for
which they are eligible, either in Tijuana or Mexicali, or in San Diego or Imperial County. A
social marketing campaign is also being developed to encourage people to be tested for HIV.
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