With backing from the Ford Foundation, AIDS United awarded $1 million in grants to community-based organization in the Southern United States, according to an AIDS United press release.

The grants are part of the AIDS United Southern REACH (Regional Expansion of Access and Capacity to Address HIV/AIDS), which is marking its 10th anniversary. In the past decade, more than $11 million have gone to address the HIV epidemic in Southern states by creating social change and supporting advocacy and community-based organizations.

This year’s grants go to groups in the Deep South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The South is the epicenter of the U.S. HIV epidemic, making up 49 percent of new HIV diagnoses while representing 37 percent of the nation’s population.

The 2015 grantees are:

  • ACCESS Network, Inc. (Ridgeland, South Carolina)
  • Affinity Health Center (Rock Hill, South Carolina)
  • AIDS Action Coalition of Huntsville (Huntsville, Alabama)
  • AIDS Alabama (Birmingham, Alabama)
  • BASIC NWFL, Inc. (Panama City, Florida)
  • Birmingham AIDS Outreach (Birmingham, Alabama)
  • Choices: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health (Memphis, Tennessee)
  • Collaborative Solutions Inc. (Birmingham, Alabama)
  • Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)
  • El Centro Hispano, Inc (Durham, North Carolina)
  • Equality Foundation of Georgia (Atlanta, Georgia)
  • Friends For Life Corporation (Memphis, Tennessee)
  • HIV/AIDS Alliance for Region Two (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
  • Legal Services Alabama (Montgomery, Alabama)
  • Legal Services of Southern Piedmont (Charlotte, North Carolina)
  • Louisiana AIDS Advocacy Network (Shreveport, Louisiana)
  • Mississippi Center for Justice (Jackson, Mississippi)
  • Nashville CARES (Nashville, Tennessee)
  • NO/AIDS Task Force (New Orleans, Louisiana)
  • North Carolina AIDS Action Network (Raleigh, North Carolina)
  • North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (Durham, North Carolina)
  • Okaloosa AIDS Support and Informational Services, Inc. (OASIS) (Fort Walton Beach, Florida)
  • SisterLove, Inc. (Atlanta, Georgia)
  • South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council (Columbia, South Carolina)
  • South Carolina HIV Task Force (Ridgeland, South Carolina)
  • Western North Carolina AIDS Project (Asheville, North Carolina)
  • Women With a Vision, Inc. (New Orleans, Louisiana)