Project Name: Caribbean Access Initiative (CAI)

Funding Source and Project Period: HIV Center Pilot Studies Program; 2004 - 2005

Collaborating Institutions and Key Personnel:

HIV Center:
Principal Investigator: Rogério M. Pinto, Ph.D.
Mentors: Robert H. Remien, Ph.D., and Theresa Exner, Ph.D.
Advisors: Mary M. McKay, Ph.D.; Joyce Hunter, D.S.W.; Laurie Bauman, Ph.D.; Cynthia Gordon, Ph.D.

 

Project Overview:
The primary goals of this study are to describe the process of collaborative HIV prevention research with community-based organizations (CBOs), and to identify guidelines for collaboration specific to HIV prevention research. The positive impact on public health of community-academic collaborations is acknowledged in the literature, but little systematic research has examined the process involved in each phase of HIV prevention research projects – from specific aims to dissemination of results. Academicians have articulated some principles of collaboration that inform what ought to occur in collaborative research, in order to achieve optimum effectiveness, dissemination and community acceptability. However, principles established thus far have shortcomings in the context of HIV, as they rarely specify the process by which researchers and community partners carry out HIV prevention research collaborations.

 

In this study, we examine, from the perspective of these community partners, the process of successful community-academic collaboration and the extent to which current principles of general health research collaboration apply to HIV prevention research with CBOs, and propose to develop working guidelines for successful collaboration in HIV prevention research with CBOs. The sample of this study includes 10 of the 50 CBOs that are funded by the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene to provide HIV prevention services. We are interviewing individually 2 0 participants who represent two levels of staff at each CBO (Executive Directors plus another administrator or a line worker). Participants are asked to evaluate past collaborations vis-à-vis their agencies' missions and priorities. Data will be analyzed in consultation with a panel of community experts. We will thus provide a detailed description of the process of collaboration in HIV prevention research and catalog both working principles and guidelines for successful collaboration in HIV prevention research.

 

Publications and Presentation Abstracts:
None to date.