Outreach Planning & Exchange Network (OPEN)
The Outreach Planning and Exchange Network is a suite of online tools meant to assist organizations with the planning and evaluation of HIV/STBBI prevention outreach programs serving priority populations. OPEN’s core components include a searchable database of programs and indicators, enabling HIV/STBBI prevention programmers to readily discover what their counterparts do in other parts of the country. Meant for communicable disease programs, outreach workers specializing in HIV/STBBI prevention, as well as groups representing priority populations, OPEN invites you to add your program and indicator information to our databases.
Contact NCCID to learn more.
Outreach Planning Guide
The Outreach Planning Guide for Infectious Disease Practitioners who work with Vulnerable Populationsfocuses on the challenges of planning and managing an outreach program to help deliver information, services and referrals to populations that practitioners often have difficulty reaching, especially those vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBI). The Guide offers a model for outreach, which involves assessing the population, designing and implementing an outreach program and measuring the results. It is the only one of its kind in Canada with a national focus. The Outreach Planning Guide resulted from HIV/STI knowledge and exchange forums that NCCID hosted in 2008 and 2010. Discussion at the forums highlighted the need for a national perspective on outreach. NCCID then held six workshops across Canada to introduce the Guide and to bring outreach professionals together to share their knowledge and expertise working directly with vulnerable populations.
See GUIDE
Outreach Planning Checklist
A comprehensive list of checkpoints based on the content within the Outreach Planning Guide, the checklist is intended to be used for the creation of new outreach programs and/or for evaluating existing programs in order to direct activities for continuous improvement. Practitioners are encouraged to contribute feedback on the use of the checklist in practice, as this feedback will be incorporated into future versions.
- APP: A web-based, mobile-friendly version of the Outreach Planning Guide Checklist.
NCCID Learning Site
In 2008, NCCID initiated a partnership with Alberta Health Services (then known as Capital Health) Edmonton STI Clinic to provide support for the adoption of evidence informed practice and to strengthen Alberta Health Services’ capacity to plan, implement, evaluate and document Edmonton’s STBBI outreach program.
The Edmonton Learning Site is an example of the Outreach Planning Guide ‘in practice.’ Program-specific evidence-informed products resulting from the partnership between NCCID and the Edmonton Learning Site included:
- Syphilis and HIV Point-Of-Care Testing Pilot Project Summary Report
- Situational Assessment
- Program Logic Model
- Performance Measurement Framework
- Gap Analysis
These products were used throughout the planning and delivery of the program (and became the evidence- and practice-informed steps outlined in the Outreach Planning Guide). Learn more by reading our Purple Paper on the Edmonton Learning Site.