Grant will help group fight AIDS

AIKEN --- Aiken Teen Pregnancy Prevention is getting financial assistance in its efforts to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The group has been chosen to receive a $40,000 grant from the National AIDS Fund.

Susan Meehan, the executive director of the teen pregnancy organization, said the grant begins March 1.

"They were really looking at organizations that were already providing prevention and youth help." she said. "They were looking for small, grass-roots organizations that were already doing HIV and AIDS prevention."

The group has two AIDS programs already active: Positive Outcomes-Clinic and Positive Outcomes-Community. A third program is planned, Ms. Meehan said.

She said the money will be used to augment the teen pregnancy group's charter and strategic plan, expand fundraising efforts and upgrade materials used in AIDS programs.

The National AIDS Fund reports that the disease is increasing in the South while stabilizing elsewhere. South Carolina also ranks high in rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS.

The Aiken Teen Pregnancy Prevention group and the Aiken County Health Department launched the Positive Outcomes-Clinic four years ago. It counsels teens about sexually transmitted diseases and provides family counseling for young women.

Last year, the group counseled 1,000 teens, the organization reports. A 2007 audit by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control found that a year after initial counseling, 87 percent of those teens were not pregnant and 53 percent were STD free, the group said.

"Our clinic program has been really successful," Ms. Meehan said. "It has been a wonderful partnership between us and DHEC. We have the ability to sit down and have time to talk to the teens."

Ms. Meehan said that program counseled 400 teens its first year and more than 1,000 last year.

The other program, Positive Outcomes-Community, focuses on providing reproductive health education to at-risk youths.

A third program is being launched this spring. Called Sistas, Informing, Healing, Living, Empowering, the program will focus on minority women, an increasingly at-risk group for HIV.

Reach Sandi Martin at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or sandi.martin@augustachronicle.com.