CORE - Community Response to End Inequalities

Objective: The European Union and its Member States have made substantial progress towards reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 ‘To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, and its specific target of ending HIV/AIDS, TB, and other communicable diseases. However, significant differences and inequalities that prevent further progress toward these targets still exist within the EU, namely between MSs, and between and within the affected communities. Project CORE – “CommunityResponse to End Inequalities” aims to reduce these inequalities by promoting, strengthening, and integrating the community responses that have proven key in reaching those “hard to reach” by mainstream prevention and healthcare services, especially in MSs where these responses are still lacking. To strengthen community responses, CORE will use capacity building, networking, and the exchange of good practices and innovative approaches, including data monitoring and reporting. To ensure ownership and stakeholders’ interest in implementing and sustaining these interventions, it will proactively reach out and engage relevant stakeholders. To promote the integration of these approaches into disease prevention and health promotion strategies and systems, it will address legal, policy, and structural issues. It will build on and intensify the collaboration of regional networks and national and local organisations of people living with HIV, key populations, and service provider organisations. It will use, adapt, and disseminate existing national, regional, and global good practice approaches and tools from across key populations and disease areas, and provide platforms for exchange. CORE will focus on expanding, strengthening, and sustaining community initiatives so they can work with communities left behind in national responses. It will integrate and harmonise community responses to respond, in particular to the needs of people with multiple vulnerabilities.

Promoter: AIDS ACTION EUROPE (AAE)

Implementation sites: Multicountry implementation by several organisations in the following countries: Bulgaria, Czechia, France, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.

GAT's role: Co-leader of Workpackage 5 - Service Development with the main objective: To consolidate and increase the scope and effectiveness of community-based services provision in an integrated prevention, testing, linkage to care and treatment adherence approach. It will  focus on early  diagnosis of HIV, viral hepatitis, and other STIs, Tuberculosis using a data  collection tool based on community-identified needs.

Timeline: 1 January 2023 – 31 December 2025 July (36 months)

Funding: European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA)

Focal points: Mariana Vicente and Rosa Freitas