Module 4: Foundation of a Prevention Program

Goal of Module 4: To provide methods, examples, and tools with which to carry out your HIV/AIDS prevention program.

In order to provide an effective HIV prevention intervention for Native people, you will need to lay a strong community foundation and apply intervention programs in a culturally meaningful way. One option is to tailor existing interventions to fit the unique needs of your Native community. This module includes an overview of program components, information on CDC’s Advancing HIV Prevention Initiative, descriptions of evidence-based interventions, and an introduction to storytelling as a prevention strategy.
Contents 3a Evidence-Based Interventions
1. Components of a Comprehensive Prevention Program:

2. Advancing HIV Prevention Initiative:
3. Evidence-Based Interventions:
4. Introduction to Storytelling as a Prevention Strategy:

As a component of the Advancing HIV Prevention Initiative, prevention programs should be based on scientific evidence. There are a number of prevention interventions that have been scientifically evaluated and proven effective in different populations.

The most commonly used Evidence-Based Interventions (EBI) are:
Community PROMISE
Healthy Relationships
Holistic Health Recovery Program
Many Men, Many Voices
MPowerment
Popular Opinion Leader
Prevention for Positives

 RAPP
RESPECT
Safety Counts
SISTA
Street Smart
Together Learning Choices
Voices/VOCES

Detailed information about these and other interventions can be found at http://www.effectiveinterventions.org. To request assistance in tailoring and adapting these interventions for Native communities, please contact NNAAPC at information@nnaapc.org.

Community PROMISE (Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies) is a community-level intervention model that focuses on reducing the risk factors that put members of a specific population at risk for HIV. One of its key strategies is the use of role model stories to inspire positive change among members of the community. The role model stories are developed from interviews conducted by outreach workers; they describe real-life positive behavior change in the words of the community members. Role model stories may be in the form of brochures, newsletters, digital stories, or comic strips.8

Community PROMISE can be easily adapted for Native communities, as it draws on the strengths of indigenous health practices such as talking circles and storytelling. Community PROMISE is one of the EBIs for which NNAAPC provides training, adapting, and tailoring assistance. It has also been successfully adapted for Native communities by the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) in Oklahoma. By carrying out programs like Community PROMISE, the AAIP and affiliated communities work to solve racial and ethnic disparities.
8Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Provisional Procedural Guidance for Community Based Organizations: Community PROMISE; April 2006. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/prev_prog/AHP/resources/guidelines/pro_guidance_community.pdf.Accessed February 21, 2007.