The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) received funding from the CDC to develop a five-year plan of innovative and implementable ideas to end the HIV epidemic in San Francisco, in alignment with the federal Ending the HIV Epidemic in America Initiative. Recognizing the overlapping nature and shared drivers of HIV and other transmissible conditions in San Francisco, SFDPH decided to use these funds to focus more broadly on the “syndemic” of HIV, HCV, and STIs in the city. They hired Facente Consulting to develop the five-year plan, using an iterative, community-informed approach.
Facente Consulting designed and facilitated a rapid planning process, which involved a massive community engagement effort in collaboration with five subcontractors representing the plan’s priority populations. During the planning process, Facente Consulting refined plan strategies and developed an epidemiological profile and situational analysis. These elements were ultimately synthesized into a final comprehensive “Ending the Epidemics” plan, drafted by Facente Consulting in late 2019. This draft was refined throughout 2020 in coordination with the Ending the Epidemics Steering Committee, culminating in a comprehensive final draft that received concurrence from the HIV Community Planning Council and approval by CDC later that year.