MOCHA Coalition The MOCHA Coalition is an association comprised of the Chicago Department of Public Health and eight community based organizations (CALOR a division of Anixter, Greater Chicago Committee, Horizons Community Services, Howard Brown Health Center, Minority Outreach Intervention Project, Task Force AIDS Prevention, Test Positive Aware Network, and VIDA/SIDA) and the Chicago Department of Public Health synergistically working to improve the lives of African American and Latino gay men. This innovative project is funded by the Office of Minority Health and the only of its kind in the country. One of the over arching goals of this coalition is to build the infrastructure of these organizations to better enable them to respond qualitatively and quantitatively to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African American and Latino gay/bisexual community. The MOCHA Coalition began in October of 1999 and since have made several major inroads into increasing the quality and number of services this community: -
Conducted thorough Needs Assessment of the partner organizations to identify strengths and weaknesses; -
Built stability within several partner organizations; -
Implemented a Client Satisfaction survey to garner a better understanding of the challenges and barriers to health care for this community; -
Developed a series of agency specific activities to increase their ability to serve and understand the culture of this community; -
Maintained National Visibility and Leadership to ensure resources are available for this community and guarantee appropriate strategies/interventions are developed/implemented to prevent HIV among African American and Latino gay men; -
Increased funding to Chicago for this community by 40%; -
Developed an extensive Public Health Campaign to reduce HIV infections and increase access to HIV Counseling and Testing, as well as reduce stigma and homophobia. HIV/AIDS’ Impact on This Community Across this country, gay men have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Currently in Chicago, gay men represent a greater proportion of reported AIDS cases than they do nationally, 53% compared to 37%. Unfortunately, this same impact is seen in Chicago and particularly among African American and Latino gay men. In Chicago, new AIDS cases among African American gay men have steadily increased and Latino rates have stayed the same, while AIDS cases among White men have decreased. Consequently, we are witnessing both an alarming increase of HIV infections and of AIDS cases among this population. The factors and variables that have contributed are complex and numerous. However we know that African and Latino gay men experience all of the traditional barriers to accessing health care that racial/ethnic minorities face, along with the additional obstacle of discrimination due to homophobia and homohatred. The stigma and marginalization of this community, coupled with the high rates of HIV/AIDS has created a great need for programs like the MOCHA Coalition. | 
