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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
New York, NY, United States, 10/27/2006 - Hudson Pride Connections and New York Researchers at Hunter College Announce Creation of a New Program to Reduce HIV / AIDS Rates Among Transgender Women and Lead the Way for Future Programs.
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Hudson Pride Connections (HPC), formerly Jersey City Connections, and the Hunter College Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training (CHEST) in New York have joined forces to create a program that will examine ways to effectively reduce HIV/AIDS rates among transgender women in Hudson County and the surrounding areas.
Transgender women represent a disproportionately high number of new HIV/AIDS infections in Hudson County. And the goal of this program is to reduce the rates of new infections among transgender women by promoting safer-sex practices, treating substance abuse and emphasizing the benefits of general health.
³The most telling thing about our existing transgender client base is the fact that they have no where else to turn,² HPC Director Guido Sanchez said. ³This marginalization makes the risk of HIV a startling reality one that none of us should accept.²
The program is part of a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) initiative to collaborate with community groups to develop and evaluate ground-breaking interventions. The program is based on HPC¹s ³Girls Living in the Trans Zone² (GLITZ) initiative which has been funded by the Prudential Foundation and through the federal Ryan White CARE Act distributed through Hudson County.
³This is an exciting opportunity for behavioral scientists and front-line community prevention workers to collaborate to benefit the lives of transgender women,² CHEST Director Dr. Jeffrey Parsons said. ³We have the opportunity to expand on the great work that HPC has done in this area to develop something really innovating. Ultimately, this could have a tremendous impact on the health of transgender women.²
Hudson Pride Connections (hudsonpride.org), formerly known as Jersey City Connections and founded in 1993, serves the unmet needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, as well as HIV positive people of any orientation living in Hudson County, through supportive social services, prevention, outreach, advocacy, and development trainings for other service providers, to educate and empower all of our communities.
The Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training (CHEST, Dr. Jeffrey Parsons, Director, is affiliated with Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has a collaborative relationship with researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).
CHEST (chestnyc.org) conducts research on social and psychological factors that contribute to HIV transmission. Studies at CHEST also seek to identify and promote strategies that prevent the spread of HIV and that improve the lives of people living with HIV. In addition to carrying out formative research, CHEST aggressively disseminates the findings of its studies to organizations serving persons with HIV and at risk for HIV.
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hpc[.]hudsonpride.org 
