Office of Minority Health

Grantee: Advocates for Youth
Washington, DC 20036
Project: Empowering African American/Black College Students to Increase Awareness of HIV/AIDS Risk Factors and Acquire HIV Risk Avoidance/Reduction Behaviors
Amount: $879,987
Grant Period: 2010-2013

Project Description | Key Program Findings | Related Goals

Project Description
Advocates for Youth (AFY) champions efforts that help young people make informed and responsible decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. AFY focuses on people ages 14–25 in the United States and around the globe.

The purpose of this project was to address the disproportionate rates of HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections among African American/black youth. An important objective of the project was to partner with student health centers at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Georgia and Mississippi and with two community-based health care facilities (CBHFs), AID Atlanta and Building Bridges.

To accomplish the objectives, AFY helped the student health centers at their partner HBCUs and associated CBHFs in each state to provide culturally appropriate, gender-specific, evidence-based HIV prevention services. The five HBCUs received a seed grant to carry out their interventions, and the two CBHFs received compensation for their services. The seed grants helped the HBCUs to add new condom distribution sites, provide HIV testing and counseling on campus, and link HIV-positive individuals to care. AFY also worked with all of the campuses to develop HIV/AIDS-related policies and a youth leadership council. These councils organized awareness events; held gender-specific workshops on risk avoidance/risk reduction, condom negotiation, partner communication and health relationships; planned HIV prevention awareness activities at freshman orientation; and supported the Greater Than AIDS campaign. The intended outcomes of this project included increased awareness of risk factors for HIV/AIDS, increased knowledge of prevention and intervention strategies to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission, increased HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, improved health outcomes for the target population, behavior modification on the part of participants and more efficient use of resources through the partnership.

To measure the progress of the intervention, numerous measures were collected. Process measures were collected for dissemination of materials, technical assistance and trainings, partnerships with HBCUs, partnerships with the CBHF health education campaign and collaboration with the Office of Minority Health. AFY recorded the number and types of materials disseminated to partners, the number of individuals participating in one-on-one and group technical assistance (TA) and consultation, and the outcomes of TA and training provided, among others.

Data were collected on a range of performance measures, including the number of individuals who participated in the one-on-one and group trainings and education programs, the number of student health center staff trained, the number of condom distribution sites and condoms distributed, and the number of individuals who know their serostatus. Outcome measures were collected through feedback questionnaires on the quality and adequacy of the materials, post-training questionnaires to assess knowledge gain, group discussions and pre-/post-intervention surveys to assess the schools’ change in capacity to carry out HIV prevention activities.

Key Program Findings Reported throughout the Grant Period

• Increased access to condoms. Fifty-four new distribution sites were established across the five HBCU partners. Prior to the grant, each campus only had one distribution site through their student health center. Over 175,000 condoms were distributed through all campus distribution sites. 

• Student involvement. Youth leadership councils were established and have been recognized as student organizations. The councils conducted 187 education events, reaching a total of 24,837 students. 

• Behavior modification. Of the 5,185 students who received HIV counseling, 3,589 students (69 percent) reported increased frequency of condom use or use of other prophylactic barriers, 2,488 (48 percent) reported increased negotiation skills, and 1,010 (19 percent) reported increased safer sex practices.

• Increased number of individuals receiving HIV counseling and testing and who know their HIV status. 5,185 students were counseled and tested, 43 tested positive, and 41 were linked to a continuum of care within 30 days of diagnosis. Each campus increased HIV testing by at least 25 percent.

• Increased campus capacity to address HIV/AIDS. Student health center staff were trained to offer HIV counseling and testing on campus independent of CBHFs. Youth leadership councils created HIV/AIDS-related policies on four campuses (previously only one of the five had a policy).

• Sustainability of programs. All five HBCUs added purchasing condoms into their operating budgets to sustain the condom distribution sites in the schools’ student health centers and resident halls. State and local health departments will also provide free condoms to the universities. The HBCUs will continue their partnership with the CBHFs to offer counseling and testing services.

Related Goals

National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities

• Awareness: Increase awareness of the significance of health disparities, their impact on the nation and the actions necessary to improve health outcomes for racial, ethnic and underserved populations
• Leadership: Strengthen and broaden leadership for addressing health disparities at all levels

Healthy People 2020 Objectives and Sub-objectives

• HIV-13: Increase the proportion of people living with HIV who know their serostatus
• HIV-14.4: Increase the proportion of adolescents and young adults who have been tested for HIV in the past 12 months
• HIV-17.1: Increase the proportion of sexually active unmarried females aged 15 to 44 years who use condoms
• HIV-17.2: Increase the proportion of sexually active unmarried males aged 15 to 44 years who use condoms
• HIV-3: Reduce the rate of HIV transmission among adolescents and adults
• HIV-4: Reduce the number of new AIDS cases among adolescents and adults
• HIV-5: Reduce the number of new AIDS cases among adolescent and adult heterosexuals
• HIV-6: Reduce the number of new AIDS cases among adolescent and adult men who have sex with men