About the Center
Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s Faith COMPASS (COMmitment to Partnership in Addressing Health Disparities in Southern States) Center is a Gilead Sciences funded project that advances the capacity and organizational resiliency of faith communities to address HIV/AIDS in the US South. Through transformative storytelling, informative educational offerings, strategic grantmaking, and broad dissemination, we partner with faith organizations to shift narratives away from stigma toward life-enhancing possibilities. Our aim is to collaborate with Christian and interfaith partners to deepen their understanding of and engagement with their communities’ health challenges and opportunities.
We Offer
Faith Leader and Faith Communities Training
We prepare faith leaders to better understand and address HIV and the impact of stigma-related harm that can occur in faith spaces and build capacity for faith communities to expand opportunities for social and structural change that promotes equity for all.
Spiritually-Integrated Health Ministries
Through social justice focused activities, advocacy, increased education, coalition building, replication of best practices, and addressing social determinants of health, we work with congregations, nonprofits, and other organizations to start and enhance health ministries in their context.
Strategies in Transformative Storytelling
We provide opportunities to enhance faith communities by helping to create brave and inclusive practices and rituals for healing, including tools for preaching, teaching, and the use of art and artists for individual and communal thriving.
Institute
Learn more about our signature transformative storytelling summer institute
Programs
Learn more about Black Faith & HIV and our innovative social justice programs
Partnerships
Learn more about our diverse group of partners engaging in faith and health projects.
News
- Stacy W. Smallwood (‘01) has been named Executive Director of Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s Faith COMPASS Center. He currently serves as associate professor of community health and founding director of the Office of Health Equity and Community Engagement in the Jiann-Ping Hsu […]
- The newly branded Black Faith and HIV initiative at Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s Faith Coordinating Center recently awarded 21 organizations with grant funding to address HIV stigma in faith communities across the South. The grant recipients are based in 8 different […]
- HIV & Faith Ambassador Initiative Champions the Faith and Justice Work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Today, the Gilead COMPASS Initiative® Faith Coordinating Center at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in partnership with Old North State Medical Society announces the official launch of the “HIV and Faith Ambassadors” Similar to the justice work forged by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and […]
Events
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April 25, 2024 | 11:30am
Divinity and Religious Studies Building -
April 26, 2024 | 3:00pm
Wait Chapel -
April 30, 2024 | 11:45am
Divinity and Religious Studies Building -
May 2, 2024 | 11:30am
Divinity and Religious Studies Building -
May 18, 2024 | 7:00pm
Divinity and Religious Studies Building