Background

In 1993, the National Library of Medicine^® (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research (OAR) identified a gap among community organizations. It was found that community organizations were disadvantaged compared to not-for-profit organizations, such as academic institutions, as they lacked the knowledge, skills, and technical means to access and provide the latest authoritative prevention, treatment, and research information electronically over the Internet.

In May of 1994, NLM issued the first Request for Quotations (RFQ) for AIDS Community Information Outreach projects (ACIOP) with a purpose of improving the capacity of community organizations in an effort to eliminate disparities of access to HIV/AIDS-related information at the local level.

For over 25 years (1994 -2021), ACIOP has provided competitive awards to more than 204 community and faith-based organizations; libraries; health departments; and local, municipal, and state agencies. These awards are granted to improve access to HIV/AIDS health information for patients, the affected community, caregivers, and the general public. Funded awards have ranged from $25,000 to $60,000 per organization.

Organizations used funding to design and conduct community projects that follow one of three goals:

• Improve HIV/AIDS health information access for patients, the affected community, caregivers, and the general public
• Provide access to HIV/AIDS health information in a way that is meaningful to the target population
• Increase the awareness and use of NIH/HHS online and mobile HIV/AIDS resources

ACIOP Information Access Categories

All ACIOP projects included two or more of the following information access categories:

1. Information Retrieval
2. Skills Development
3. Resource Development and Dissemination
4. Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Navigator Resource Development and Dissemination
5. Equipment Acquisition (removed from the information access categories after the 2020 funding cycle).

ACIOP Resources

ACIOP provided a variety of resources to assist awardees with the success of their projects. Resources included:

• Technical assistance
• Evaluation support (i.e., reviewing awardees’ logic models, providing recommendations, and one-on-one interviews with awardees to discuss recommendations)
• Capacity-building webinars
• ACIOP Blog for awardees to highlight projects and access project and evaluation resources
• Promotional materials and toolkits with NLM specific HIV/AIDS online resources

Until 2020, awardees were required to complete the HIV/AIDS Information Resources from NLM: E-learning Training course to become knowledgeable on NLM specific HIV/AIDS resources.  

Learn more

• Explore ACIOP’s innovative projects.
• Learn about the awardees and their impact
• Visit the ACIOP Blog, where awardees highlighted projects and accessed evaluation and other resources.
• View all past funded projects.