Description of Intervention: StreetSmart

This intervention was based on Social Learning Theory, using small groups (a) as practice and role-play opportunities, (b) to mobilize and reinforce positive behaviors, and (c) to maintain support networks. The intervention consisted of 10 group sessions on a rotating basis, 3 times per week, repeated every 4 to 6 weeks, and one individual counseling session. Sessions were led by trained counselors in shelters for runaway youth in the New York City area. The intervention had four primary components:

1. HIV-related knowledge. Activities included video and art workshops where youth developed soap opera dramatizations, public service announcements, commercials, and raps about HIV prevention, and they reviewed and discussed commercial HIV/AIDS prevention videos.
2. Social skills. Training on assertiveness and coping skills, including use of a "feeling thermometer," were employed to develop skills for use in HIV-risk situations.
3. Access to resources. Participants visited a community based comprehensive health and mental health center.
4. Personalized beliefs, attitudes and norms. Participants had a private counseling session during which they could assess individual barriers to practicing safer sex and discuss their own attitudes and behavior patterns. Dysfunctional attitudes and behavior patterns were targeted.

Incentives included food and $1 for carrying condoms and arriving to the program on time.