Saint Louis Effort for AIDS

For thirty years, Saint Louis Effort for AIDS (EFA) has been leading the way with innovative best practices and client-centered programs and services. As an advocate and comprehensive service provider for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), EFA's mission and goals are aligned with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) to: increase the number of people who know their HIV status; reduce the number of people who become infected with HIV/STI's; increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with and at risk of becoming infected with HIV/STI's; and reduce HIV-related health disparities. Public health and health care systems continue to undergo a paradigm shift fueled by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the advancement of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, medicalization of HIV services and biomedical advances, such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). In today's continuously changing health care landscape, EFA continues to be strategic, proactive, agile and adaptable.

EFA was started by volunteers in 1985 as a stand-alone, community-based AIDS Service Organization (ASO). EFA began conducting street and campus outreach that same year, Ryan White case management services were added in 1992, and HIV testing in 1998. In 2003, to meet community needs and transcend barriers in populations with disproportionate rates of HIV infection, EFA began providing mobile outreach services to African Americans at high-risk, and in 2005 started testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). With the implementation of the ACA, EFA began providing insurance enrollment in 2013.