Outreach has a long history in health and social service programs as an important method for reaching at-risk persons within their communities. One method of "outreach" is based on the recruitment of networks of community members (or "networkers") to deliver HIV prevention messages and materials in the context of their social networks and everyday lives. This paper documents the experiences of the AIDS Community Demonstration Projects in recruiting networkers to deliver HIV prevention interventions to high-risk populations, including injecting drug users not in treatment; female sex partners of injecting drug users; female sex traders; men who have sex with men but do not self-identify as gay; and youth in high-risk situations. The authors interviewed project staff and reviewed project records of the implementation of community networks in five cities. Across cities, the projects successfully recruited persons into one or more community networks to distribute small media materials, condoms, and bleach kits, and encourage risk-reduction behaviors among community members. Networkers' continuing participation was enlisted through a variety of monetary and nonmonetary incentives. While continuous recruitment of networkers was necessary due to attrition, most interventions reported maintaining a core group of networkers. In addition, the projects appeared to serve as a starting point for some networkers to become more active in other community events and issues.
Higgins, D L; O'Reilly, K; Tashima, N; Crain, C; Beeker, C; Goldbaum, G; Elifson, C S; Galavotti, C; Guenther-Grey, C;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):28-35
Description:
The AIDS Community Demonstration Projects provided community-level HIV prevention interventions to historically hard-to-reach groups at high risk for HIV infection. The projects operated under a common research protocol which encompassed formative re...
Holtgrave, David R.; Harrison, Janet; Gerber, Russell A.; Aultman, Terru V.; Scarlett, Margaret;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):108-114
Description:
To be effective, HIV prevention programs should be planned in partnership with affected communities and should be built on a solid scientific foundation. In 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its prevention partners implem...
Traditional sampling methods are unsuitable for determining the levels of human immunodeficiency virus type I infection and related behavioral risk factors among young men who have sex with men. Most surveys of this hard-to-reach population have used...
The prevention of HIV in Women and Infants Demonstration Projects use a conceptual model for maximizing broad community participation for HIV prevention called the Community Mobilization Framework. The projects' comprehensive approach attempts to bri...
Buehler, James W.; Diaz, Theresa; Hersh, Bradley S.; Chu, Susan Y.;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):133-137
Description:
A variety of surveillance methods are used to characterize the epidemic of HIV infection and AIDS. Such surveillance includes AIDS case reporting, reporting of diagnosed HIV infections, and HIV seroprevalence surveys among targeted sentinel populatio...
Corby, Nancy H.; EnguÃdanos, Susan M.; Kay, Linda S.;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):54-58
Description:
A theory-based HIV prevention intervention was implemented as part of a five-city AIDS Community Demonstration Project for the development and testing of a community-level intervention to reduce AIDS risk among historically underserved groups. This i...
Cabral, R J; Galavotti, C; Gargiullo, P M; Armstrong, K; Cohen, A; Gielen, A C; Watkinson, L;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):75-82
Description:
This report describes a mid-course process evaluation of an HIV risk-reduction counseling intervention delivered by specially trained peer paraprofessionals. One of the key questions addressed is whether paraprofessionals can successfully implement a...
Through one of its many HIV prevention programs, the Prevention Marketing Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promotes a multifaceted strategy for preventing the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS among people less than 25 years o...
This article discusses methods and elements of three major national health survey systems, particularly as they relate to HIV infection and AIDS. The National Health Interview Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System provide informat...
This paper describes two systems, the HIV Counseling and Testing Data System and the National Health Interview Survey, AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes Supplement, that collect behavioral information on HIV counseling and testing in the United States. To...
Goldbaum, Gary; Perdue, Thomas R.; Higgins, Donna;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):36-40
Description:
Non-gay-identifying men who have sex with men are at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. To understand these men and to develop interventions to reduce their HIV risks, the authors interviewed staff at agencies that serve non-gay-i...
This paper describes a method for estimating the true resource costs of counseling for HIV prevention. The method includes identifying the resources used in counseling, determining the true unit costs of the resources used, and calculating the total ...
Health departments and community-based organizations across the United States are funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct street outreach to facilitate risk reduction among a variety of hard-to-reach populations who are at...
Schnell, D J; Galavotti, C; Fishbein, Martin; Chan, D K;
Published Date:
1996
Source:
Public Health Rep. 111(Suppl 1):59-68
Description:
The stages of behavior change model has been used to understand a variety of health behaviors. Since consistent condom use has been promoted as a risk-reduction behavior for prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, an algorithm for...
Current HIV prevention counseling strategies rely largely on interventions aimed at changing behaviors. Among these is HIV prevention counseling and testing, which has been a prominent component in the federally supported strategies for HIV/AIDS prev...