Consumer Leadership Corps Training Program

Application Materials 2008-09 -- English

Application Materials 2008-09 -- Spanish

AIDS Alliance is helping to develop new consumer leaders and support existing ones by training them to train others in their neighborhoods and communities. Established in 2000 in response to consumer-identified needs, the AIDS Alliance Consumer Leadership Corps Training Program uses a train-the-trainer model and curriculum to provide HIV-positive women with the training, skill building, and mentoring they need to be effective educators of their peers.  

Participants in the program come to Washington three times over the course of a year to participate in intensive, interactive group training experiences that combine lectures with "teach-backs" and other practice opportunities. Between these trainings, we provide ongoing mentoring and concrete support as they begin to put what they are learning into practice by conducting workshops in their neighborhoods and communities.

Ever since 2000, this corps of consumers has trained over 25,000 other consumers in their local communities.  The program operates in English and Spanish.

By training and empowering consumers, AIDS Alliance supports their efforts to care for themselves and their families and to advocate for others. These informed and energized consumers are essential allies in getting people living with HIV disease into care and ensuring meaningful access to care. That's why the Consumer Leadership Corps Training Program has been so successful and continues to be so necessary.

It is this desire -- to help others by sharing one's experience and to build new skills to share also -- that informs the program. Leadership development, building on strengths, and peer training and partnerships are at the heart of the program model.

Consumer Leadership Corps participants are recruited each year from communities across the country. Priority is given to women living with HIV who are receiving care through Part D (Title IV) of the Ryan White CARE Act or affiliated with a Part D Title IV program as a volunteer or staff member. The program is free of charge to participants. Because the training and mentoring we provide is so intensive, the program cannot accept everyone who applies.

For more information call AIDS Alliance at 202-785-3564 and ask for Linda H. Scruggs at ext.15 (English Program) or Denice Cruz at ext.19 (Spanish Program).

The Consumer Leadership Corps Training Program is funded by a cooperative agreement from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).