Engaging African American faith leaders in developing, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating church-based HIV interventions for youth and adults

Disproportionate rates of HIV among African Americans across the lifespan persist. Increasingly, African American faith leaders have been called upon to assist in efforts to combat the burden of HIV in their communities. Accordingly, consideration should be given to developing church-based HIV interventions that are religiously-appropriate, “fit” within existing church infrastructure, and build upon churches' experiences and strengths in reaching the communities they serve. Using a community engagement approach that fully includes African American faith leaders as collaborative partners in the health science research process, we have collaboratively disseminated empirically-guided HIV interventions (i.e., Taking It to the Pews [TIPS], TIPS II, TIPS-Youth Promise) among youth and adult church members and community members affiliated with 25 African American churches. The TIPS interventions have focused on HIV education, prevention, stigma, and screening with faith leaders serving as active change agents in addressing these issues. Moreover, TIPS intervention strategies have been effective in significantly increasing HIV screening rates among church populations. We will discuss lessons learned in working with African American faith leaders to collaboratively develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate church-based HIV interventions including: a) mutually setting a church-appropriate research agenda; b) jointly developing and delivering religiously-appropriate HIV intervention materials and activities that motivate HIV screening; c) recruiting churches and church/community members as study participants; d) collecting focus group and survey data on sensitive topics; and e) interpreting and disseminating intervention findings. We will also discuss challenges encountered within our collaborative partnership while addressing HIV across the lifespan in African American churches.