Preventing HIV among Black Men in College Using a CBPR Approach

Abstract

The African American/black population is the second largest racial minority group in the United States and disproportionately burdened by HIV and AIDS. Currently available HIV interventions tend to focus on risk reduction and treatment among population subgroups such as men, especially sexually marginalized men (e.g., gay, bisexual, same-gender-loving men, and men who have sex with other men [MSM]), injection-drug users, and, more recently, heterosexual women. A paucity of HIV prevention strategies have been demonstrated to be efficacious and effective for African American/black heterosexual men, particularly those of college age. In addition, despite the growing HIV epidemic in the southern United States, little is known about innovative intervention approaches that are likely to be successful in this region of the country. In this chapter, we describe how members of our collaborative applied principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in the development of an innovative HIV prevention project designed to fill intervention gaps and reduce HIV exposure and transmission among African American/black heterosexual men attending a predominantly white university in the southeastern part of the United States. In collaboration with community members, including African American/black men and women, representatives from local community-based organizations, and university staff and faculty, we developed and pilot-tested a novel HIV prevention intervention known as Brothers Leading Healthy Lives (BLHL). We also describe some of the challenges we faced and provide key lessons learned and the strategies we used to target the nature of the community and context within which our project took place.

This chapter is dedicated to Dr. Warner McGee, a friend, colleague, and student who devoted his short life to advocating for students and fighting this dreadful disease.