HIV/AIDS Health Promotion an Education
Cooperative Agreement Program
Fiscal Year 2004

eloveluck@hispanichealth.org

Hispanic/Latino

The overall goal of the Take Control: Know Your Status/Tome Control: Hágase la Prueba is to increase access for at-risk Hispanic youth and young adults age 16-24, to HIV testing and follow-up health care services through the Alliance’s national toll-free Su Familia Helpline. The project will utilize the Helpline to provide referrals to HIV testing and follow up services at the local level throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Specifically, the project is a community-level intervention designed to develop culturally and linguistically proficient radio public service announcements (PSAs) for Hispanic adolescents and young adults. The announcements are intended to convey to the listeners the importance of getting tested for HIV, and promote Su Familia as a referral source to culturally and linguistically proficient clinics or health centers. Through partnerships with community-based Hispanic organizations in four communities located in: Phoenix, Arizona, Watsonville, California, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the project conducted focus groups with members of the target population to assess knowledge and awareness about HIV testing. The focus group protocol was tailored to address the needs/concerns of each of the four sites. The results of the focus groups are being utilized to guide the development of 60-second radio PSAs for the target population. The PSAs are being developed over the course of the project in conjunction with Radio Bilingue, a Spanish public radio, national network. In the third year of the project, workshops will be conducted in each of the target communities with Hispanic at-risk youth to discuss barriers to getting tested for HIV and to address access issues.