Project Summary HIV Awareness, Testing, Prevention, and Treatment Targeting Vulnerable Minority Communities in Shelby County Tennessee The Memphis/Shelby County metropolitan region in the state of Tennessee (TN) is disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The TN Department of Health reported in 2017 that the highest rate of people newly diagnosed with HIV in the state was in Memphis/Shelby County at a rate of 25.7 per 100,000 persons. In 2017, Shelby County also had the highest rate of people living with HIV (PLWH) at a rate 690.2 per 100,000 persons. In 2019, the CDC reported that the highest rate of people living with HIV in the state of TN was in Memphis/Shelby County at a rate of 690 per 100,000 persons. That compares to just 93 per 100,000 persons in the Nashville, TN and 280 per 100,000 nationwide. Memphis, TN ranks 4th among all metropolitan statistical areas in new HIV infections and was identified in the CDC's Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative as a high HIV burden geographic focus area. Strategies to reduce HIV infection among vulnerable minority populations in Memphis/Shelby County represents an urgent unmet public health need. To curtail the rate of new infections in the Memphis/Shelby County metropolitan area, Meharry will develop an innovative comprehensive plan to improve HIV awareness, prevention, testing, and treatment targeting at risk minority communities. We will partner with the Friends For Life (FFL) Corporation, federally qualified health centers, and local community- based organizations (CBOs) to improve HIV/AIDS awareness, testing, prevention, and treatment targeting at- risk minority populations. The HIV/AIDS awareness effort in Memphis/Shelby County will involve engagement with at risk populations by focus groups, virtual presentations, Facebook live sessions, Instagram and flyers. HIV testing is critical component to reducing the number of new HIV infections therefore we will promote a strategy of testing at risk population in non-traditional venues including nightclubs, salons, barbershops, grocery stores, and places of worship to combat stigma associated with HIV testing. The HIV prevention component will incorporate HIV PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) navigation and intervention strategies used to improve PrEP uptake via education, linkage, and follow-up engagement via flyers, social media, radio, and a special PrEP podcast to increase PrEP uptake among minority MSM and transgender populations. For the individuals that test positive HIV we will have Facebook live sessions with infectious disease medical providers and experienced HIV/AIDS navigators that promote drug treatment adherence, benefits of linkage to care, and lifetime wellness strategies. Findings from the proposed study will provide a foundation for the scale-up of HIV awareness, testing, treatment and PrEP navigation implementations to reduce HIV infection rates statewide.