Seven community organizations have partnered to form Zero Pinellas, an initiative granted $2,207,694 over three years to reduce new HIV infections in Pinellas County by at least 50 percent.

The participating organizations—the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, The AIDS Institute, BayCare, Empath Health and EPIC, the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County and Metro Wellness and Community Centers—were granted the funds by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. The private foundation uses its funds to support health equity countywide.

“These organizations applied to the Foundation seeking ways to partner to stop Tampa Bay from HIV infection rates higher than many places in the nation; and disproportionately higher in young people, poorer people and people of color,” the foundation’s president and CEO Randall H. Russell released in a statement. “We are so fortunate to have these courageous and wise leaders who came together to improve and change systems in Pinellas so that new HIV infections continue to diminish over time.”