ESSHCI Clinical NOFO Partner Announcement

What you need to know

September 22, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

This week, CDC awarded a total of $12.5 million to 26 recipients to strengthen clinic infrastructure and expand access to comprehensive sexual health services in communities with high sexually transmitted infection (STI) burden and unmet need for STI clinical services. This award was made through a new funding opportunity PS-23-0011: Enhancing STI and Sexual Health Clinic Infrastructure (ESSHCI). ESSHCI's first year of funding has been provided by the ongoing federal Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative, which aims to reduce new HIV infections in the United States by 90% by 2030.

Why this funding matters

The existing infrastructure of sexual health clinics (i.e., STI clinics) is insufficient to address the STI epidemic in the United States. CDC recognizes that if additional efforts are not taken to expand the breadth of sexual health services in the communities most impacted by STIs, the nation will continue to see an upward trajectory in these infections. To help address this challenge, ESSHCI will increase participating clinics' capacity to provide quality comprehensive sexual health services, leading to increased access to quality, stigma-free sexual health services in underserved communities.

Funding Strategies

ESSHCI is committed to building active and meaningful engagements with communities disproportionately impacted by HIV and other STIs. Both EHE and ESSHCI are focused on implementing equitable, community-informed prevention strategies. Under ESSHCI, recipients will implement two required strategies and one optional strategy:

1. Strategy A – Foster Community Engagement and Partnerships: This strategy requires that recipients build active and meaningful engagements with communities of priority populations affected by the STI epidemic and mobilize public health partners to develop a clinic-level plan that increases access to quality comprehensive sexual health services. Strategy A planning activities will take place in Year 1.
2. Strategy B – Strengthen Clinic Infrastructure and Provision of Sexual Health Services: This strategy requires that recipients create a new sexual health clinic or expand an existing clinic to include specialized STI and sexual health services. Strategy B implementation activities will take place in Years 1 through 5.
3. Strategy C – Expand Access to STI Prevention & Other Sexual Health Services Supporting a Syndemic Approach: Strategy C is an optional, competitive strategy for Years 1 through 5. If funded under Strategy C, recipients will conduct short-term activities in support of a syndemic approach.

While five ESSHCI recipients are proposing brand new sexual health clinics, most recipients will be expanding sexual health services in existing clinics. These clinical settings include primary care clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alikes, teen health clinics, community health centers, and more.

ESSHCI Recipients

CDC looks forward to working with the following partners in our continued efforts to end the syndemic of STIs and HIV in the U.S. Here are the ESSHCI Recipients for year one and their funding amounts.

Questions about the ESSHCI work may be directed to DSTDP Program Development and Evaluation Branch Chief, Dr. Stanley Wei (bge3@cdc.gov).

As always, thank you for your unwavering dedication to STI and HIV prevention.

Sincerely,

Leandro Mena, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Director
Division of STD Prevention
National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention