Grant to Bolster AIDS Programs for Latinos : Outreach: Sunset clinic will use the money it won from a federal agency to hire four new employees.

Santa Claus came early this year to the Cara A Cara Latino AIDS Project of the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic in the form of a grant that could total more than $300,000.

“It’s good to know the money is there,” said project director Oscar Reconco. “This is great news for us.”

The grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be distributed over a period of three years. Money for the second and third years will be provided based on the grantee’s performance for the previous year and availability of funds, said John Glover, project officer for the centers.

Cara A Cara uses a variety of events to provide education about the HIV virus to Latino community members.

Reconco said that the new funds will allow the project to expand its activities in two ways.

First, two case managers will be hired to help those diagnosed as HIV-positive, assessing their needs and guiding them to the appropriate agencies.

“We’ll try to guide them through the whole system,” Reconco said, adding that the health care system can be intimidating to those with poor English skills, or who are in this country illegally.

The idea is to improve the quality of life for those with the fatal disease through bilingual and culturally sensitive counselors. Case managers will also work with those testing positive for other sexually transmitted diseases. Reconco has found that people with such maladies have a higher risk of contracting HIV.

Outreach will be the second part of the expanded program. “Instead of them coming to us, we’re going to them,” Reconco said.

Two outreach workers will be hired to distribute packets of literature and condoms to Latinos in places where they look for work or socialize.

The two new strategies will target undocumented immigrants, gay and bisexual men and women, and homeless youths, Reconco said, adding that AIDS education is an especially touchy subject in the Latino community.

“Our community is not used to communicating with our parents (about sexuality),” he said. “There is a lot of denial.”

In addition, “the machismo is a big problem with communication,” Reconco said. “You have your wife and your girlfriends, it makes you proud, but you’re not proud when you use a condom.”

Another issue is bisexuality, which Reconco says is more common in the Latino community than most will admit.

“It’s not talked about,” he said. “It’s real tricky.”

Cara A Cara won the grant through a competitive process. Glover said the project was scored on the organization’s experience, the plan and its feasibility, and the population served.

The number of grants provided “depends on the amount of money available and how much people are asking for,” Glover said. “That’s why it goes through a competitive process, so we can be fair to everyone.”