On Thu, Jan. 31, NEIU received a grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA) to prevent substance abuse, HIV and Hepatitis among Latinos. The organization chose institutions by a nationwide applicant pool. A total of seven universities across the country received the funding in order to create programs to serve the community. The 3-year renewable grant allows NEIU to accept up to $225,000 in program funds.
The federal government acknowledges NEIU as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HIS). According to Dean of Students Michael Kelly, “At least 25 percent of the student body is of Latino background. For that fact, the university is able to apply for minority-centered grants. There were seven institutions in the United States that received the grant, two of them were Hispanic Serving Institutions and one of those was Northeastern.”
The grant allows NEIU to conduct health services to the population through peer-led groups. 12 student-peer educators were chosen through nominations by faculty and staff, followed by interviews. Since the grant focuses on the Latinos, the individuals were chosen by their ethnic background to mimic the target population. Additionally, the educators underwent training in order to organize the numerous support programs through the NEIU Substance Abuse, HIV and Hepatitis Program Initiative”(NEIU-SAHHP Initiative). The educators will focus on providing awareness concerning STDs, unprotected sex and substance abuse. The main goal of the initiative is to serve 1,000 Latino students by October 2008.
Dean Kelly assures us that “these programs are going to be open to any member of the campus community, but because the grant and the program focus on Latino students, we have to have a mechanism to count how many Latino students are participating for use. And we have a way of doing that through a questionnaire at the end. the programs themselves, anyone can take part in.”
The special peer-to-peer program is supervised by an advisory committee led by Dean of Students Michael Kelly.