STARR

The SAVED Team for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and Substance Use Risk Reduction (STARR) is a Targeted Capacity Expansion for Substance Abuse Treatment and HIV/AIDS Services program funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

The STARR program is a group of outreach workers -- all members of our RCSP initiative -- who canvass urban Atlanta communities engaging substance users at risk for HIV infection in dialogue aimed at linking them with alcohol and drug treatment programs. An additional task includes testing more than 100 substance users per month for HIV infection, utilizing the HIV Rapid Test (20 minute test). 

An important component of STARR is its faith-based prevention program, responsible for providing education to metro-Atlanta churches as a method for raising HIV, Hepatitis C, and substance use awareness and as a method for establishing referral sources for individuals in need of treatment services. The presentations are approximately 1 hour in-length, and are facilitated by appropriately prepared HIV educators, fluent in faith principles. Presentations are appropriate for multiple ministries, including singles, couples, youth, men, women, and seniors, and can be adapted to other audiences as well. There are no fees for our presentations, however, we do accept honorariums that we use to help offset costs associated with housing men and women in early recovery in our peer-led transitional housing program.

The ultimate objective of the STARR program is to reduce HIV infection and transmission among metro-Atlanta residents by linking substance users with treatment programs and by identifying individuals living with HIV through our testing initiative. 

Photo by David Whiters, World AIDS Conference, Durban South Africa, July 2000.