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In the fall of 1999, the Center for Substance Abuse
Prevention and Danny K. Davis, Congressional Representative (7th District Ill.),
announced a grant award to the Prevention Partnership, Inc. for community based
youth prevention education. The three-year grant will provide the organization
with funding to implement its substance abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention program
targeting over 4800 youth and young adults in the Austin, Near Westside and
Lawndale neighborhoods. The Chicago Department of Public Health identified
Austin, a neighborhood with over 100,000 African American residents, as being at
high risk for HIV infection through substance abuse.
The Prevention Partnership a minority, community-based not-for-profit
organization founded in 1987, operates two other HIV/AIDS prevention projects.
The organization also sponsors substance abuse prevention, gang prevention, and
family wellness programs. Albert Orsello, Chief Executive Officer and a
nine-member board of directors, with support from a fifteen-member panel of
experts, oversee the agency.
The
Prevention Partnership youth HIV/AIDS/Substance Abuse Prevention Program focuses
on changing community norms regarding risky behaviors through peer education.
The project uses a community team approach with specially trained youth as peer
health educators. These peer educators represent several community schools and
agencies including: The Austin YMCA, Chicago Public Schools Region 3 (Austin,
Richard Crane, Hugh Manley High Schools) and the Alternative Schools of
Community Services West (Academy of Scholastic Achievement, Community Christian
Academy and the Learning Network Center) and others.
Youth peer educators receive over 50 hours of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, peer
leadership
and
character development skills training. Each team develops an action plan that
educates other youth through outreach activities such as educational
presentations and materials dissemination in schools and community
organizations. Arthur Lurigio, Ph.D., Chairperson, Department of Criminal
Justice, Loyola University, is evaluating the program.
Daryl Edwards, Program Manager, believes the key to the project is that it will
be youth driven. He recently explained that, "Adults will provide support, but
the leadership and implementation will come from youth." He went on to say that
the program emphasizes the relationship of alcohol and other drugs in the
transmission of HIV/AIDS. "In this vein, we won't only focus on the spread of
the disease by injecting drugs with needles, but also how substance use can make
individuals less inhibited." He also said that the program would address the
development of positive and monogamous relationships.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic, far from being defeated, is wreaking havoc in the African American community. According to the Centers for Disease Control the virus has overtaken murder in the U.S. as the leading killer of black men and women ages 25 to 44. Rates of infection are exploding within the black community: the CDC reports that more than half of the 40,000 new cases in 2000 were among African Americans, half of these among black men who have sex with other men. Black women are four times more likely to carry the virus than white women.
The Chicago Department of Public Health reports that infection rates in the city’s black population match these alarming national trends. AIDS disproportionately impacts African-Americans, who make up 39% of Chicago’s population, yet represent 69% of recent AIDS cases. According to the Department, the incidence of AIDS in the Westside areas of Austin, Garfield Park, and Lawndale as of June 2001 was 10.8% of all AIDS cases in the city. Of these 76% are men and 24% are women. West Side Community Areas have the highest AIDS case fatality rates in Chicago. (Chicago Department of Public Health AIDS Surveillance Report enclosed.)
Such an intense concentration of the disease has devastating effects on many levels: besides the illness, suffering, and loss of life involved, there are economic and social effects on communities that are already fragile. Men and women who should be employed and moving into positions of leadership are unable to do so. Families and children are forced to cope with deepening threats to their well being and their economic viability.
The reasons why this devastating plague remains under-recognized are difficult and complex, but lack of information and denial of the problem top the list. It is into this gap that Prevention Partnership inserts its HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education Programs.
The mission of these programs is simple and basic: to prevent young people in the African-American community on Chicago’s west side from contracting the HIV virus.
This program targets youth of both sexes, ages 9 to 19 because this is the critical age range for experimenting with the risky activities that can lead to HIV infection.
The program reaches young people with a one-two punch:
First, education and information dispel the mistaken idea that they are not at risk, that HIV is not a danger in their social group. They become aware that they can, indeed, contract this disease and that the African American community is now the leading community at risk for HIV/AIDS in the United States and in their neighborhood.
Second, they are taught skills on three levels:
A) HIV/STD prevention skills:
 | How to maintain sexual abstinence or postponement up to a certain age; |
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| How to practice safer sex from both the male and the female perspective; |
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| Negotiation and refusal skills to help them retain control of their activities and minimize risk; |
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| Character development to withstand pressure to engage in risky behaviors. |
B) Substance Abuse Prevention Skills
C) Leadership Skills
The education and skills training characteristic of the program is realized in three intervention modalities:
I. Training of Peer Health Educators
Thirty young people ages 9 to 19 participate in a yearlong program of twice-a-week training sessions. They become a cadre of Peer Health Educators to conduct youth to youth educational efforts in the community. The intense training develops their own character, life skills, and academic skills as well as teaching an understanding the material for HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse prevention and how to make effective public presentations. The Peer Health Educators must read, prepare presentations, and take exams. They receive a stipend for their time as well as uniforms, membership in a positive and structured group, and many experiences to enhance their self-esteem and prestige among their peers. Two professional teachers and four senior Peer Health Educators conduct the training.
II. Presentations to Groups of Youth
The Peer Health Educators, accompanied by adult prevention specialists, make presentations to groups of other young people, in schools, summer job programs, recreational programs, etc. The professional trainers provide support and assistance as needed, but it is the Health Educators who make the presentations to their peers. These presentations reach 800 students in a calendar year. Each presentation lasts 60 to 90 minutes and contains some or all of the four sections of prevention education:
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| HIV/AIDS |
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| Sexually Transmitted Diseases |
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| Substance Abuse |
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| Leadership |
Evaluations from participants show youth expressing growth in knowledge and understanding of the behaviors discussed and their intention to practice the healthy behaviors the Peer Health Educators espouse.
III. Community Outreach
The Peer Health Educators also distribute information and materials in the community. Accompanied by adults, the young people talk to people about HIV/AIDS and distribute pamphlets, flyers, and prevention materials at health fairs, street corners, parks, and area businesses. They also make presentations in their own homes and neighborhoods to reach as many family, friends, and neighbors as possible. Community outreach touches over 5,000 people in a calendar year.
The HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program was funded from 1991 to 2002 by grants from the US Department of Human Services, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The program is now funded by the Chicago Department of Public Health on the west side of Chicago.
CSAP staff and the Program Coordinating Center (JSI Research and Training, Inc. in Boston) conducted a national cross-site evaluation in 1991. In addition Loyola University Chicago evaluates the project on the local level. The evaluators summarized their conclusions as follows: "Overall the evaluation of Prevention Partnership’s HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Prevention and Education Program for African American Youth has been very positive . . . the program received favorable responses from all its participants, especially the young African American students who are fundamental to achieving the program’s primary goals."
The HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Program is a component of Prevention Partnership, incorporated in Chicago in 1987 as a not-for profit community based prevention and health promotion agency. Prevention Partnership is governed by a Board of Directors under the leadership of its Chair, Ms. Renae Brantley. CEO Albert Orsello oversees the day-to-day operations of the organization’s programs. Mr. Daryl Edwards is the Program Manager for the HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Program. In this capacity he supervises the two professional classroom teachers, the prevention specialists, and the Peer Health Educators.