African American young adults continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The Southern United States has been particularly affected by HIV/AIDS, accounting for 52% of the new HIV diagnoses. Efforts to reduce the burden of HIV among young African Americans are still needed. Project HAPPY (HIV/AIDS Prevention Project for Youth) was developed and implemented using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. There were several challenges that arose during implementation of Project HAPPY that included recruitment, partner engagement, and retention. The realities of implementing an HIV prevention project with urban adolescents is discussed in detail and strategies to overcome these challenges, using a CBPR approach are described. The lessons learned from CBPR implementation of Project HAPPY include: (1) Create a feedback loop to receive community input and guidance throughout the life of the project; (2) Periodic community inventory to determine who is providing similar services to avoid saturation; (3) Prepare for Alternative Partner Engagement; (4) Consult (formally and informally) with the Institutional Review Board prior to submitting proposed changes to avoid unnecessary delays in implementation; (5) Select meaningful incentives for your priority population; and (6) Maintain multiple points of contact with community partners to mitigate the effects of staff turnover.
Project HAPPY was a CBPR prevention intervention for Black youth (14 - 18) that compared four intervention groups: Becoming a Responsible Team (BART), HIV-RAAP (HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction Among Heterosexually Active African American Men and Women: A Risk Reduction Prevention Intervention), and two newly developed curriculums that incorporated social media, DHAB A and DHAB B (Decreasing HIV/AIDS Boldly). We examined the effects of the intervention on condom use attitudes, condom use self-efficacy, and HIV prevention attitudes. The analyses of 175 participants demonstrated significant positive effects of all the interventions on HIV prevention attitudes, and condom use attitudes, while there was a positive effect for the BART intervention on condom use self-efficacy. The BART intervention also demonstrated significant positive effects on condom use self-efficacy when compared to the DHAB B intervention. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated a significant effect for gender on HIV prevention attitudes and a significant effect for age on condom use attitudes.
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