Project FAITH
FAMILIES ACQUIRING INFORMATION TOGETHER about HIV/AIDS
Project FAITH began as a community level mobilization, intervention, prevention and education organization, working primarily through houses of worship.
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Mobilization: Motivating and moving people to action.
• Intervention: Providing information that causes people to make different choices and reduce risky behavior.
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Prevention: Providing information that influences behavior and decisions before risky behavior occurs.
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Education: Presenting facts and truths that teach options, consequences and successes.
These interventions were successfully accomplished through community awareness, events, health fairs, HIV Basic Courses for Ministries and HIV conferences.
Project FAITH has transitioned from Community Level Interventions to Group Level Interventions. These interventions deal with behavioral changes and adaptations to social norms.
Project FAITH is a statewide, HIV/AIDS education and prevention program that targets the faith leaders and congregations in various houses of worship, or non-traditional settings throughout the State of New Jersey. Its primary role has been to establish HIV resource centers that include one or more of the following activities:
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Distribution of culturally appropriate literature and materials (give-away) that may be inserted into faith community bulletins
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Provide HIV prevention risk and harm reduction sessions
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Provide counseling and training
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Provide HIV prevention train-the-trainer to at least two persons from each house of worship for an on-going dialogue with members and its community
Project FAITH HIV resource centers are certified partners with the Balm in Gilead, a nationally recognized organization with expertise in the mobilization of black churches and HIV/AIDS awareness.
Although this intervention has worked well, the epidemic continues to ravish the African American com0unity. According to the State Department of Health and Senior Services, nationwide, more than 1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS and half of all AIDS cases occur among African Americans. In New Jersey, more than 33,300 people are living with HIV/AIDS and 55 percent or 18,500 of them are African Americans.
Project FAITH has implemented two capacity building workshops that will shift the focus of their work from AIDS awareness to a “behavior change model” utilizing scientifically based curriculum. This project conducts the SISTA (Sisters Informing Sisters About Topics on AIDS) and POL (Popular Opinion Leader) intervention and prevention trainings.
Project Rebuild
Project Rebuild is a family strengthening program, with an emphasis on HIV education. It was developed by Dr. Robert Fullilove of Columbia University in 2001 and is designed to address the many issues and challenges facing many communities. This program takes a “(w)holistic” approach to behavior modification and life change.
Project Rebuild administers the Family-to-Family Program, an initiative designed to assist families in building stronger ties with one another to help face many of life’s challenges. Not only are the families’ basic needs met (food, water, shelter, clothing), emphasis is placed on the need to impart “life skills” to families and utilizes self-esteem building techniques.
Located at thirty sites throughout New Jersey, this program, through its “Family Home Sessions”, focuses on instructing families to use “family time” in a productive way. During each session, lessons and exercises are presented that allow participants to share their experiences, wants, needs, dislikes and problems with one another. Dialogue is fostered among family members, enabling difficult subject matter, such as the issue of HIV/AIDS, to be confronted in a loving, encouraging and inviting atmosphere. HIV prevention materials are presented in an indirect and private manner so as to encourage HIV prevention practices in spite of the cultural and social stigma surrounding the disease.
Project Family-To-Family
There are 30 Family-To-Family sessions held weekly in which families learn life skills, such as effective communication, and about HIV/AIDS.
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The Family-to-Family Program teaches families to use family time in a productive way to strengthen family functioning and ties between members. The program’s goal is to help families build foundations of unity, love and understanding. The program is entirely nonsectarian and can be adapted for families of all types.
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Each session begins with a wholesome, ½ hour-long meal, giving families time to sit and eat together, opening up the possibility for dialogue within the family.
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The main idea is that once individuals have a strong foundation from which to build upon, and have a safe and open place to share their troubles, dreams and ideas, the self-worth and well-being will be raised to such a level that they are much better prepared to assume the role of responsible, productive members of the community.
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Project Rebuild is based on the premise that broken families make for broken communities; that troubled men, women, teens and children born out of a turbulent home life carry baggage with them to work, school and within their neighborhoods. The program works to repair families damaged by external forces by strengthening the internal bond within the family unit.
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A family can be any group of people who share common goals and are bonded by loving relationships. “Family Home Evening” is a method used by the Family-to-Family Program to present family members with lessons and exercises that stimulate discussion and assist family members to address difficult life issues in a simple and fun manner.
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Whether “family” is defined as children and grandparents, single parents, same sex parents, aunts, uncles or siblings raising siblings, all are welcome. The program services all races, ages, creeds and ethnicities. No one is turned away from Rebuild’s doors.
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Family-to-Family is being proposed as a strategy for combating community epidemics by focusing on the Program Concept group rather than on the individual at risk. Strong communities, it has been argued, are the only solutions for the kind of community-wide disruption that creates the conditions in which crime, violence and public health challenges flourish.
Project Rebuild – Family-to-Family: “An Idea Whose Time Has Come”
The long-term benefit of Project Rebuild is to create and sustain a process for re-knitting the social networks that decades of neglect, abandonment, crime and ill health have destroyed. Rebuild aims to treat the “whole family”, not just the symptoms, by imparting on its families a solid sense of self worth and providing them a strong educational foundation from which to build. Rebuild’s core belief is that a union of heart, mind and body is key to eradicating crime, domestic and sexual abuse, addiction and homelessness.
Project SISTA
SISTA (Sisters Informing Sisters about Topics on AIDS) is a peer-led program to prevent HIV infection among African American young women. Over 50 percent of the women with AIDS are African American women. Although participants may have heard about the disease, they may not be doing enough to protect themselves from getting AIDS. This is a program that will give women the knowledge, skills and pride to actively protect themselves from becoming infected with the AIDS virus.
The SISTA PROJECT was developed by African American women and is tailored towards the needs of African American women who are currently in a heterosexual relationship. The project consists of five once-a-week two-hour sessions. These sessions build on one another and have been developed to encourage group participation in an open and stimulating environment. The sessions (in the order they are taught) include:
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Ethnic/Gender Pride
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HIV/AIDS Education
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Assertiveness Skills Training
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Behavioral Self-Management Training
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Coping Skills
THE SISTA’S PLEDGE:
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I need to think about my SELF first. I need to think about what is important to me. |
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I need to use the INFORMATION that I have about sex, drugs and HIV/AIDS to think about what is safe for me to do. |
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I need to think about the SITUATION that I am in and see what trouble it places me in. |
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I need to state the TROUBLE to my partner, as well as the options and consequences. |
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I need to tell my partner in an ASSERTIVE manner what I would like to do. |
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I need to SUGGEST an alternative that my partner and I will be comfortable with. |
VOICES/VOCES
VOICES/VOCES is a single-session, video-based HIV/STD prevention workshop designed to encourage condom use and improve condom negotiation skills among African-American and Latino adult men and women who are at high risk of becoming infected with and/or transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
VOICES/VOCES does not require participants to return for multiple-session workshops. Instead, it fits effective prevention education into the time frame of a clinic visit or other brief opportunity to reach clients during a “teachable moment.”
VOICES/VOCES is grounded in the Theory of Reasoned Action…Reasoned Action Theory provides a model for understanding how people’s behaviors are guided by their attitudes, beliefs, and past experiences as well as by how they perceive others think they should act in a given circumstance – that is, the social and cultural norms of their community.
During a VOICES/VOCES session, health educators convene groups of four to eight clients in a room that allows privacy for discussion.
Groups are gender and ethnic-specific, so that participants can develop prevention strategies appropriate for their culture.
Information on HIV risk behaviors and condom use is delivered by videos, facilitated group discussion, and a board presenting features of various condom brands in English and Spanish.
Two culturally-specific videos are used: one for African-American participants and a bilingual video for Latinos.
Skills in condom use and negotiation are modeled in the videos, then role-played and practiced by participants during the discussion that follows.
At the end of the single, 45-minute session, participants are given samples of condoms.
Clients who participate in VOICES/VOCES demonstrate:
• Increased knowledge about the transmission of HIV and other STD’s• A more realistic assessment of their personal risk
• Greater likelihood of getting condoms and intending to use them regularly
• Fewer repeat STD infections