Challenges and Approaches to Mobilizing Communities for HIV Prevention Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men of Color

Abstract

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) of color are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS in the United States. More HIV prevention interventions targeting risk factors of this group are needed, particularly at the structural level. This article focuses on Connect to Protect®: Partnerships for Youth Prevention Interventions (C2P), a multisite study employing community mobilization to decrease HIV acquisition and transmission among youth. Seven C2P sites are mobilizing their communities to prevent HIV among YMSM of color. These sites have faced a number of similar challenges. This article uses qualitative data to explore three domains relating to community mobilization at YMSM sites—forming community partnerships, maintaining the coalition, and facilitating structural-level coalition objectives. Challenges and approaches across domains illustrated themes related to stigma and discrimination, mobilization around YMSM of color, coalition participation and funding.

KEYWORDS:

• coalitions
• community mobilization
• HIV prevention
• stigma
• young men who have sex with men of color

Additional information

Notes on contributors

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) and Connect to Protect® were supported by grants U01 HD040533 and U01 HD040474 from the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with supplemental funding from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and Mental Health. Additional grants that supported this work at the ATN sites include: Children's Hospital of Los Angeles: U01 HD040463; Children's Memorial Hospital: U01 HD052172; Children's National Medical Center: U01 HD040562; Mount Sinai Medical Center: U01 HD040505; University of California at San Francisco: U01 HD040506; University of Maryland: U01 HD040584; University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: U01 HD040481. The authors thank the investigators and staff of the ATN listed in Harper, Willard, and Ellen's (2012 [this issue]) “Connect to Protect®: Utilizing Community Mobilization and Structural Change to Prevent HIV Infection Among Youth” for their valuable contributions to this project. We would like to acknowledge all the Community Coordinators at YMSM sites who are not co-authors on this article for their participation in the qualitative data query, perseverance with community mobilization, and commitment to marginalized populations of youth. Thank you to William Barnes, Johanna Breyer, Michael Camacho, John Flannery, Veronica Montenegro, Margaret Jones, and Stephanie Stines. In addition, we would like to acknowledge Nancy Willard and Kate Chutuape for their informative comments on the article.