Laying the Foundation for Connect to Protect ®: A Multi-Site Community Mobilization Intervention to Reduce HIV/AIDS Incidence and Prevalence among Urban Youth

Abstract

Despite the considerable resources that have been dedicated to HIV prevention interventions and services over the past decade, HIV incidence among young people in the United States remains alarmingly high. One reason is that the majority of prevention efforts continue to focus solely on modifying individual behavior, even though public health research strongly suggests that changes to a community's structural elements, such as their programs, practices, and laws or policies, may result in more effective and sustainable outcomes. Connect to Protect is a multi-city community mobilization intervention that focuses on altering or creating community structural elements in ways that will ultimately reduce youth HIV incidence and prevalence. The project, which spans 6 years, is sponsored by the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions at multiple urban clinical research sites. This paper provides an overview of the study's three phases and describes key factors in setting a firm foundation for the initiation and execution of this type of undertaking. Connect to Protect's community mobilization approach to achieving structural change represents a relatively new and broad direction in HIV prevention research. To optimize opportunities for its success, time and resources must be initially placed into laying the groundwork. This includes activities such as building a strong overarching study infrastructure to ensure protocol tasks can be met across sites; tapping into local site and community expertise and knowledge; forming collaborative relationships between sites and community organizations and members; and fostering community input on and support for changes at a structural level. Failing to take steps such as these may lead to insurmountable implementation problems for an intervention of this kind.

Empowering Youth through HIV/AIDS Program in Indonesia

“…Adjusted R 2 with a value of 5.1% indicates that the resources of a person have very little effect on a person's knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Based on qualitative results showed that youth get information on counseling, a peer support group/peer educator and NGOs down to the region and there are three informants who have not received any information at all regarding HIV/AIDS (Ziff, et al, 2006). Structural Equation Modelling is also conducted three activities that check the validity and reliability of the instrument (factor analysis confirmatory, like the one in Fig.…”

“…Referring to the national policy, DKI Jakarta has had the regulation that HIV/AIDS is a dedicated program. HIV/AIDS programs related to youth in Jakarta is that sexual transmission prevention program (behavior, condom promotion, management of STI and VCT), transmission syringe (behavioral, LISS, PTRM, VCT, drug treatment and condom promotion), transmission from mother to baby, the provision of blood transfusions are safe, universal precautions, post-exposure prophylaxis; Program Care, support and treatment that VCT services, Periodic Inspection CD4, ARV treatment, and prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections; Program to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS that is context-dependent economic empowerment as well as program development and management of quality assurance programs (Jennings, et al, 2006;Ziff, et al, 2006).…”

“…The main problem today is the lack of effort in youth empowerment who empowering others. Youth as one of the potential of resources in the area of the underutilized community are in the development process (Ziff, et al, 2006). There is a program which is aimed and can reach by youth.…”

HIV/AIDS amongst street children in Cameroon: their relative knowledge, attitudes and sexual experience

“…There are 660,000 adults age 15 to 49 with HIV/AIDS, 58,000 children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV, and 310,000 orphans due to AIDS aged 0 to 17 years. 8,9 In Cameroon, the increasing number of orphans is mainly due to the high rate of deaths from preventable diseases. The vulnerability of these orphans and other children who live in complex situations at home explains why some of them turn to the streets.…”

“…Though their exact number is unknown due to the lack of current data, their presence is visible along the streets in all of the cities in Cameroon. 8,9 Remarkable achievements in reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS have been made in some African countries like Uganda, South Africa and others but the prevalence and spread suggest that the epidemic is still a serious threat and therefore there is the need for continued interventions and research to curb its spread. 5,6 South African street youths possess a relatively better knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention than their counter-parts in other African countries, but the same street youths disclosed extremely negative attitudes to condoms (not using them) and to people with AIDS.…”