Kathleen M. Roe, DrPH, MPH¹, Kevin Roe, MPH², Steven Tierney, PhD³, Tracey Packer, MPH³, Valerie Rose, DrPH, MPH⁴, Dara Coan, MPH⁵, Gwen Smith⁶, and Israel Nieves-Rivera⁷. (1) Health Science Department, San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0052, 408-924-2976, kmroe@casa.sjsu.edu, (2) Magnet, 231 Sanchez St. #5, San Francisco, CA 94114, (3) San Francisco Department of Public Health, HIV Prevention Section, 25 Van Ness #500, San Francisco, CA 94`102, (4) San Francisco Department of Public Health-AIDS Office, HIV Prevention Section, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, (5) Harder+Company Community Research, 1550 Bryant Street Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA 94103, (6) Southeast Health Center, 2401 Keith Street, San Francisco, CA 94124, (7) Aguilas, 1841 Market Stree, San Francisco, CA 94103

HIV Prevention Community Planning was established in 1994 by the CDC to create an ongoing process by which directly funded public health agencies would share responsibility with local community representatives, non-governmental organizations, and other state and local agencies for identifying needs, determining priorities, and developing comprehensive, locally-based 5-year HIV prevention plans. A decade later, community planning is a well-established process in HIV policy and program development, providing insight and guidance to other community-based health issues, including obesity, homelessness, and substance abuse. Much has been learned over these ten years about the environment needed to support an authentic, evidence-based, and outcome-oriented community planning process, and much is being learned about the nature and impacts of the environmental threats to HIV prevention planning that have emerged in the past four years. San Francisco is widely acknowledged as a leader in community planning, having established national models for many of the key components of the process. Collaborating evaluators, health department staff, Planning Council leaders, and community members have identified 8 key environmental assets present in the San Francisco model and relevant to others, including 1) necessary infrastructure and organizational leadership, 2) committed and diversified resources, 3) community experience of the epidemic, 4) multiple and cross-cutting perspectives, 5) capacity for reflexive data collection and analysis, 6) appropriate staffing, 7) discourse and discussion (both hidden and explicit), and 8) process evaluation. Presence of these environmental supports are increasingly important as the broader sociopolitical environment threatens the very premises and principles of the community planning inititiative.

Learning Objectives: Upon conclusion of this session, participants will be able to

• Describe the environmental context within which CDC initiated HIV prevention community planning in 1994.
• Describe four significant threats to meaningful community planning in the current policy and political environment.
• IDentify 8 essential environmental assets for community planning in an increasingly hostile political environment.

Keywords: Community Planning, HIV/AIDS

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.