Community Outreach Intervention Projects (COIP)

Established in 1986 as an HIV/AIDS prevention project targeting injection drug users, the Community Outreach Intervention Projects (COIP) currently serve over fifty neighborhoods across Chicago and its suburbs with an array of public health interventions and research studies. The staff of over seventy members includes researchers, service providers, administrators, student assistants, and volunteers. Five storefront fieldstations, a motorhome, and a mobile van unit form the base for COIP's operations. COIP's interventions are known for their use of the Indigenous Leader Outreach Model, which employs members of targeted populations to deliver community-based services. Among the services offered at COIP's sites are: street outreach; prevention education addressing HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases common among impoverished and substance-abusing populations; counseling and testing for HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis; case management; syringe exchange; drug abuse counseling; and free medical care for persons living with HIV.

COIP's research is characterized by the use of longitudinal study designs that employ both epidemiologic and qualitative research methods. Recent or ongoing studies include investigations or evaluations of: 1) HIV and hepatitis infection and associated risk practices among young injecting drug users; 2) the use of indigenous outreach workers to identify and treat tuberculosis infections among hardcore substance users; 3) transitions into drug injection by young people who use noninjected heroin; 4) the impact of syringe exchange on HIV prevention; 5) an intervention designed to prevent hepatitis C transmission among young drug injectors; 6) the virologic and clinical characteristics of early chronic HCV infection, and factors associated with response to treatment for HCV infection; and 7) an intervention that includes the parents of young drug injectors.

COIP has been cited as a model program by the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and a Carnegie Foundation commission. Graduate assistantships and volunteer opportunities are available. For further information, contact Larry Ouellet, PhD, Director, Community Outreach Intervention Projects, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Division, at 312-355-0145 or LJO@uic.edu.