From sculpting an intervention to healing in action

ABSTRACT

Black/African Americans have the most severe and disproportionate burden of HIV of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Oppression operates at four interrelated levels (i.e., socio-structural (macro), institutional (exo), community/family (meso), and inter- and intrapersonal (micro)) that perpetuate the HIV epidemic in Black/African American communities. Oppressive (e.g., racist and sexist) cultural scripts transferred to individuals through community, family and interpersonal relationships may play a role in HIV/STI risk. However, socio-behavioral health interventions or behavioral risk reduction interventions have traditionally focused solely on individual-level health risk behaviors allowing invisible, inequitable socio-structural factors to continue unchallenged. A new intervention, Black Men and Women: Empowering Self, Relationships and Community, was sculpted from two existing interventions Community Wise and Men of African American Legacy Empowering Self (MAALES) to develop awareness of oppressive cultural scripts operating on interpersonal and intrapersonal levels and to take action against these oppressive messages to reclaim identity, restore relationships, and build community. This paper summarizes the theory and selected sociodramatic components of the intervention that promote healing in action to reduce HIV/STI risk among heterosexually identified, low-income African American men and women with multiple sex partners. Lessons learned in theory, research and practice are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• HIV/STI risk
• critical consciousness
• critical dialogue
• sociodrama

Acknowledgments

Authors acknowledge the Newark Community Collaborative Board (NCCB) for permitting the use of an image from the Community Wise intervention manual. The authors acknowledge the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research for the grant award (P30 DA011041) that funded this study. The first author was also supported by a grant from the National Institute On Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01 MD010629. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

We have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research [P30 DA011041]; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [R01 MD010629].