Hablando Claro: Promotoras as agents of sexual and reproductive health within a family-based intervention targeting Latinas

Although familism has been cited as an important Latino cultural value, few efforts incorporate cultural values and familistic components into intervention planning. In an effort to increase opportunities for culturally-sanctioned intergenerational dialogue regarding sexual risk among Latina family members, the NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health adapted the Teen Health Project to meet the needs of immigrant women and younger generation female family counterparts in Los Angeles County. This presentation will focus on the Hablando Claro: Clear Talk program, which seeks to provide Latina intergenerational dyads and triads with a two-day promotoras-based intervention designed to increase HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, HIV testing, sexual risk reduction, and increase home-based HIV and sexual risk related dialogue between mothers and daughters. Hablando Claro utilizes Community Based Participatory Research techniques and integrates promotores de salud to disseminate the educational intervention through charlas, or organized community-based educational sessions. This presentation will showcase the Hablando Claro intervention components and activities as well as the promotores tool kit and materials. The intervention and tool kit includes the following components: knowledge of sexual risk, recognition of cultural factors that impact risk, sexual risk communication among intergeneration female-family members, increasing sexual risk negotiation skills, understanding domestic violence and its impact on sexual risk. This presentation will highlight the Hablando Claro components and baseline, post and follow up effects on sexual risk-related knowledge and intention to test for HIV as well as the cultural values-based activities that contribute to its effectiveness.