Five grantees continued linkage to care activities in some capacity after project funding ended.
As expected, when CDC funding ceased, 5 of the 10 study sites were unable to continue linkage to care activities.
As a group, sites that followed these best practices enrolled more participants, linked a higher percentage to medical care, and were able to continue linkage program activities for some period of time after CDC funding ended.
Strong inter-agency partnerships were a defining characteristic of sites that continued the linkage program after CDC funding ended.
It is noteworthy that the five grantees that continued the linkage program came from smaller metropolitan areas (average 990,000 persons in 2000) compared to the five grantees that did not continue (average 4.1 million persons in 2000).
The Alabama CBO also used multiple funding sources to continue providing linkage services using one of the original linkage coordinators as a dual linkage/standard case manager.
The state HIV/AIDS programs in Missouri and Virginia were able to use Ryan White funding to continue supporting linkage program activities.
In contrast, the three CBOs that did not continue the linkage program all experienced major challenges establishing and maintaining reliable relationships with local health departments.
The effort to continue providing linkage services in South Carolina was successful because it used multiple funding streams (CDC, Ryan White Part B, and Minority AIDS Initiative) and employed one of the linkage coordinators from the ARTAS demonstration project.
