BURLINGTON - More than a year after giving up federal funds for refusing to compromise the confidentiality of the people it serves, Vermont CARES has nearly recouped the loss with new funding.
     Vermont CARES decided in 2004 to forego $100,000 in federal funding that would have "seriously jeopardized the integrity of its programming through invasive and overly personal participant surveys and tracking," said Anna Swenson, development program specialist at Vermont CARES.
     Now, a new grant from Vermont's Department of Corrections (DOC) will expand Vermont CARES' current work in state prisons; and another grant will finance the rapid-result HIV testing program for two years, allowing Vermont CARES to provide the tests to Vermonters free of charge for the first time.
     "These are great opportunities," said Peter Jacobsen, executive director of Vermont CARES, Vermont’s oldest and largest organization that serves people living with, or at risk of contracting, HIV and AIDS. "I think we're moving HIV prevention far forward in Vermont with this funding."
     An $80,000 grant from DOC will cover expanded services to prisons over a 20-month period. Vermont CARES currently combines HIV prevention presentations with one-on-one counseling and rapid-result testing at six of Vermont's correctional facilities, while using private donations to support the work. Jacobsen noted that, while the organization has long been serving people in Vermont’s prisons, the need is great.
     "It (rapid testing) works so well in corrections and substance abuse treatment," Jacobsen said. "Folks are so transient they might not be able to get their results in two weeks," he said of conventional testing procedures.
     The new grant will enable Vermont CARES to visit prisons more frequently and educate prisoners about STDs and the growing problem of hepatitis in much more depth, Jacobsen said.
     Inmates of Vermont prisons in 2005 were nine times more likely than the general population to be HIV-infected, according to Vermont CARES.
     "Our goal with (this) funding is to reduce HIV infection rates by focusing on people's risk behaviors, both in prison and beyond," Jacobsen said. "HIV is absolutely preventable."
     Vermont CARES will also receive $30,000 a year for the next two years from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust in Boston to maintain its rapid-result HIV testing program.
     "We felt strongly enough about rapid testing that we decided to pursue private funding," Jacobsen said. The new procedure is not yet available through the Health Department, although the state is looking into it, he said.
     The rapid-result testing, which before cost $40 per test, will now be offered for free. Results from the oral-swab test are available in about 20 minutes.
     Vermont CARES started its rapid-result testing program in December 2005, with no false positives to date, unlike the false readings the testing has experienced in other locations.
     "The test has proven remarkably accurate," Jacobsen said.
     Testing is available at Vermont CARES in Burlington, St. Johnsbury and Rutland. Vermont CARES also partners with Health Department programs in Newport, St. Albans, Montpelier, Barre, Johnson, Middlebury, and other locations.