The Change Approach to Capacity-Building Assistance

Abstract

The CHANGE approach to capacity-building assistance (CBA), developed over 4 years by the Latino Commission on AIDS Manos Unidas' Program to assist Latino-serving community-based HIV prevention programs in eight northern U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is a system for providing community-based organizations (CBOs) with not only the skills to implement interventions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) project, but also the capacity to reorient to the disruptive innovation of the DEBIs. The CHANGE (customized, holistic, analytical, network-building, grassroots, evaluatory) approach entails an integrated CBA-model emphasizing community and programmatic diagnosis and reflection and the enhancement of staff skills through tailored curricula in six areas: community-assessment, target-refinement, recruitment and retention, basic skills, program implementation, and evaluation. The CHANGE model encourages active CBO participation in the learning process rooted in the experiences of the organization as a member of its community.