Camden Area Health Education Center (Camden AHEC) has served over 500,000 of the nation’s poorest and most disenfranchised citizens. Camden AHEC is a community based organization founded in the City of Camden. Camden AHEC particular emphasis on providing services in the communities of the City of Camden as well as Camden and Burlington Counties. It is our job to listen to the needs of our neighborhoods and take action in helping them solve their health care challenges. Camden Area Health Education Center (Camden AHEC) is committed to improving the health of the medically under-served, the ethnic and culturally diverse, the aged, the poor, the very young, the unemployed, the homeless and the uninsured. Camden AHEC has a long history of community health initiatives that include service learning for over 300 medical, nursing, public health students and community health workers annually, piloting one of the state’s first immunization registry, establishing the City’s first farmers markets targeting WIC clients and senior citizens, offering chronic disease self-management workshops and founding member of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers (CCHP) to name a few. Twenty five (25) years ago Camden Area Health Education Center (Camden AHEC) began providing HIV/AIDS educational services targeted to community residents and healthcare providers. Camden AHEC was part of the network that provided learning opportunities for providers through the New Jersey Statewide AIDS Training and Education Center. Since 1994, Camden AHEC has offered HIV Prevention, Counseling and Testing services through its Mobile Health Van to over 20,000 residents in Southern New Jersey. Our target populations for these services have included African-American and Latino-American men and women engaged in high risk behavior for HIV/AIDS, young men who have s*x with men (YMSM), intravenous drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS. Camden Area Health Education Center (Camden AHEC) has also been recognized for its innovate approach and non-traditional hours in the provision of our HIV/AIDS services. The Drop-in-Center for minority gay, trans and bis*xual young men is the only center of its kind in Southern New Jersey. The Center provides a safe haven for the participants including counseling and support resources as well as HIV/AIDS and STI prevention education. Camden AHEC Syringe Access Program is the only full mobile site in the State of New Jersey. Since its start-up in 2008, the Syringe Access Program along with the other four (4) sites in the State have aided in the sharp reduction of HIV/AIDS via intravenous drug use.
