The challenge
To make the development and delivery of sexual health services more responsive to defined minority ethnic communities.Good sexual health is becoming an increasingly important public health issue. In 2003, more than 3,000 people in London were diagnosed as having HIV – the highest-ever level. Between 1996 and 2002, the number of cases of gonorrhoea diagnosed rose by 83 per cent, while identified cases of chlamydia increased by 132 per cent.
The incidence of sexually transmitted infections is particularly high in London's black and minority ethnic communities. We believe that access to sexual health services and effective preventive services does not adequately meet their needs.
Sixty-nine per cent of all heterosexual people in London diagnosed with HIV in 2003 were Africans, while between 1996 and 2002, rates of HIV within the South Asian community increased threefold. Evidence submitted in 2003 to the House of Commons identified that rates of gonorrhoea were 12 to 13 times higher among black Caribbean and other black ethnic groups than in white groups. Rates of chlamydia were approximately nine times higher.
The government has recognised the need to tackle the problem in, for example, its National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV and its White Paper,
Choosing Health. But if services are to be truly responsive, it is vital that voluntary community organisations and statutory agencies work together to make services more accessible to London's communities.
Strategies must take into account cultural contexts, and recognise that within each minority ethnic community there is great diversity in terms of ethnicity, education, economic status and language. Service needs and sexual behaviour are therefore equally diverse.
Through our Partners for Health in London programme, we are interested in funding projects that:
- aim to make services more accessible and responsive to a defined minority ethnic community in London
- fully involve that community in their work
- link in with current statutory service provision
- involve joint working between community and statutory sectors (although previous partnership working is not necessary).
We are looking for projects that:
- deliver preventive services (these should not duplicate those already provided by the statutory sector)
- have already defined a specific community to work with (although we will fund projects where the lead organisations work with more than one community).
We will not fund the provision of treatment or care. We will not currently fund work in the areas of teenage pregnancy, terminations, or female genital mutilation.
