AIDS Prevention for Adolescents in School: This school-based, teacher-delivered curriculum for urban high school students seeks to increase knowledge about HIV and AIDS, build skills to recognize and prevent behaviors that put youth at risk of HIV infection, and encourage youth to make healthy decisions. The overall goal of the program is to prevent unprotected sexual intercourse. The curriculum is suitable for multiethnic populations and involves six sessions, each lasting one hour, delivered on consecutive days. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Becoming a Responsible Teen: Based on social learning and self-efficacy theories, this curriculum’s primary goal is promoting safer sexual behaviors. Although the focus of the curriculum is HIV/AIDS prevention, it also includes topics and activities relevant to adolescent pregnancy prevention. The intervention is intended for gender-specific groups, each lead by both a male and female group leader. It utilizes interactive sessions, discussions, games, role-playing and videos. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: pub.etr.org.
Cuídate! A Culturally-based Program to Reduce HIV Risk Behavior Among Latino Youth: This HIV risk reduction curriculum designed for Latino adolescents is an adaptation of the Be Proud! Be Responsible! curriculum developed for African American adolescents. Based on social cognitive theory, the curriculum focuses on increasing HIV/AIDS related knowledge and weakening problematic attitudes toward risky sexual behavior. It incorporates aspects of Latino culture, and presents both abstinence and condom use as culturally acceptable and effective ways to prevent STIs and HIV. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: selectmedia.org.
Draw the Line, Respect the Line: This curriculum was developed for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students and focuses on the postponement of sexual activity and use of protection if already sexually active. It includes high interest activities, theoretical foundation, addresses social pressures on sexual behaviors, and provides modeling and practice of communication and negotiation skills. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: pub.etr.org.
Get Real About AIDS: Get Real About AIDS is designed for both sexually experienced and sexually inexperienced high school students. The curriculum utilizes interactive activities, such as discussions, role-playing, simulation, and videos, to give teens the knowledge and skills to reduce their risk of HIV infection. This program has been shown to reduce the number of sexual partners and increase condom in white and Hispanic youth living in rural, urban, and suburban settings. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills HIV Prevention Program: The goal of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills HIV Prevention Program (IMB Skills Program) is to reduce high school students’ risk of HIV infection. The IMB Skills program consists of both a classroom component and a peer educator component. Each classroom component includes videos, discussions and associated activities. The peer-educator component (Natural Opinion Leaders/NOLS) runs concurrently with the classroom-based component of the program. NOLS are taught and supervised by trained high school teachers and/or advisors both prior to and throughout the intervention. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Making Proud Choices: This safer sex approach/curriculum was chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a “Program that works” to reduce risk of STI/HIV and pregnancy risk related behaviors among adolescents. It involves multiple skill building activities, experimental exercises, videos, games, and discussions. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: selectmedia.org.
Postponing Sexual Involvement (Augmenting a Five-Session Human Sexuality Curriculum): Designed to augment a human sexuality curriculum, this peer-led sex education curriculum involves youth in discussions about social and peer pressures to have sex and gives them opportunities to practice skills to help resist these pressures. The program has been found effective in eighth grade students, Black youth, sexually inexperienced youth, and youth at high risk. The curriculum involves five 50-minute sessions, delivered by trained 10th and 11th grade peer educators in addition to five 50-minute sessions on reproductive health, led by health professionals. For more information or to order, contact Marian Apomah, Coordinator, Jane Fonda Center; Emory Unversity School of Medicine: Building A Briarcliff Campus, 1256 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta, GA, 30306; Phone, 404.712.4710; Fax, 404.712.8739
Postponing Sexual Involvement, Human Sexuality and Health Screening: This pregnancy and HIV/STI prevention intervention couples peer education curriculum from the Postponing Sexual Involvement program with individual and small group educational methods adapted from the Self Center program. This program is a two year intervention that aims to delay initiation of sexual intercourse in seventh and eighth grade students. For more information or to order, contact Renee R. Jenkins, MD, Dept. of Pediatrics and Child Health, Howard University Hospital: 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20060.
Reducing the Risk: Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD & HIV: This sex education curriculum was developed for high school students, but especially recommended for grades nine and ten. Its primary goals are to delay first sexual intercourse and to increase knowledge about pregnancy risk, contraceptive use, and protection against STDs. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: pub.etr.org
Quantum Opportunities Program: A Youth Development Program (QOP): Designed especially for disadvantaged high school students, QOP is a comprehensive education and youth development program. Throughout all four years of high school, participants are exposed to: (1) 250 hours of education, including computer assisted instruction, peer tutoring, and homework assistance; (2) 250 hours of development activities (e.g., life and family skills, health, sex, family planning, drug and alcohol abuse, college planning); and (3) 250 hours of community service activities. In addition, youth receive hourly stipends and bonuses, both of which are to be deposited in a controlled savings account. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
School/Community Program for Sexual Risk Reduction among Teens: This intensive, school-based intervention has the overall goal of reducing unintended teen pregnancy. As part of this program, teachers are offered graduate level courses in sex education. Sex education is then integrated into the curriculum for all grades (kindergarten through 12th grade). The intervention also involves training of peer educators, media coverage on a spectrum of health topics, school-based clinic services, and workshops to develop the skills of parents and community leaders as role models. The program has been shown effective in reducing long-term teen pregnancy rates in rural and multiethnic youth. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Safer Choices: Preventing HIV, Other STDS and Pregnancy: This is a theory based, multi-component school-based program designed to increase protective behaviors among high school students for preventing HIV, other STDS and pregnancy. It aims to reduce unprotected sexual intercourse by encouraging abstinence and encouraging condom use among students who report having sex. For additional information or to order this program, visit: pub.etr.org.
Self-Center (School-linked health center): Intended to augment school-based sex education, this program involves an adolescent health clinic offering free reproductive and contraceptive health care, as well as other medical services and referral. The center is located very near to junior and senior high schools. Clinic staff work daily in participating schools and provide sex education lessons in each homeroom and in the clinic. Staff are also available for individual and group counseling in the school health suite. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Teen Talk: Teen Talk is a collaborative school- and community health centers-based sex and contraception education intervention for teens between the ages of 13 and 19 years. It includes two lecture format presentations covering reproductive physiology and contraception. In addition, students also participate in small group discussions that include games, role plays and trigger films that encourage group discussion. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Youth AIDS Prevention Project (YAPP): Originally designed for high-risk youth, including African-Americans, YAPP aims to prevent STDs, HIV/AIDS and substance abuse among high-risk junior high school students. The intervention involves lectures and class discussion about STIs, HIV/AIDS, and the importance of condom use as part of 7th and 8th grade health or science classes. To aid in the development of decision-making and resistance/negotiation skills, active learning is emphasized, with opportunities for students to participate in small group exercises and role plays. There are also homework activities and opportunities for parental involvement. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Mother-Adolescent Programs
Keepin’ It R.E.A.L.: Keepin’ it R.E.A.L. is a mother-adolescent pregnancy and STD/HIV prevention program. The goal of the program is to promote the delay of sexual intercourse (abstinence) among teens and to enhance communication about sex between mothers and their teen children. The program has been shown to increase condom use in youth who take part in the program. For more information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.thenationalcampaign.org.
Clinic-Based Programs
AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women: AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women is designed to assist participants between 16 and 29 years of age in developing and following a sound sexual health plan. Specifically, this program encourages women to think about the physical and emotional consequences of unsafe sex. It helps them achieve a sense of mastery and positive expectations when discussing sexual history, HIV/AIDS testing, monogamy, spermicide and condom use and other health-related concerns with their partners. In addition, the program teaches participants how to effectively negotiate safer sex with one’s partner and maintain safer sex goals. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
ASSESS for Adolescent Risk Reduction: The ASSESS program provides tools to enhance risk-reduction communication between health care providers and teens while in a physicians office or clinic setting. The first part of the intervention involves the participant listening to a 14-minute audiotape and answering personal risk-related questions. The physician uses the color-coded responses to the questions to guide the private discussion that follows. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Reproductive Health Counseling For Young Men: This is a primary pregnancy prevention program developed for young men ages 15-18 years of age. The program has also proven successful for sexually active female partners of participants in regards to effective contraceptive use. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
SiHLE: Sistas, Informing, Healing, Living, Empowering: This STI/HIV prevention intervention is culturally and gender-specific for African American adolescent women at risk for negative sexual health outcomes. The intervention consists of four interactive group sessions lead by a trained female African American health educator and two female African American peer educators. The peer educators model skills and promote group norms supportive of HIV prevention. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Tailoring Family Planning Services to the Special Needs of Adolescents: This pregnancy prevention protocol for family planning clinics and other reproductive health care providers works to meet the special psychosocial needs of female family planning clients who are under the age of 18. A Personal Information Form, completed by the teenage client, helps counselors identify young women who are at higher risk for pregnancy than are other young women. The intervention lasts six weeks and includes a two-part first appointment and a later follow-up appointment. The first visit includes one-on-one education about contraception and sexual health and medical services. The follow-up appointment provides an opportunity for the teen to ask additional questions and discuss with a counselor any problems with her chosen contraceptive method. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
WHAT COULD YOU DO? Interactive Video Intervention to Reduce Adolescent Females’ STD Risk: This interactive video intervention aims to increase knowledge of STDs, decrease sexual risk behaviors, and decrease STD acquisition in sexually experienced females ages 14 to 18. Participants in this intervention were more likely than controls to be abstinent following the intervention and were less likely to be diagnosed with an STI at the six-month follow-up. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Youth and AIDS Project’s HIV Prevention Program: This program provides education, peer support, counseling and case management to gay and bisexual male adolescents between 13 and 21 years of age, who are at high risk for HIV/ AIDS. This program includes a risk assessment interview, a peer education session, peer support groups, and a follow-up assessment. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Community-Based Programs
Aban Aya Youth Project: An Afrocentric Social Development curriculum developed for middle school students grades five through eight. The curriculum encourages abstinence and protection for unsafe sex. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Adolescents Living Safely: AIDS Awareness, Attitudes, and Actions: The goal of this intervention is to promote behavior change to prevent HIV infection among runaway youth, ages 11 to 18. The program is designed to augment traditional services at shelters for runaway youth. An important program component is the small group discussion, which is designed to develop and improve interpersonal skills, promote behavioral self-management, increase HIV prevention knowledge and provide peer support for HIV preventive behaviors. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Adolescents Living Safely: AIDS Awareness, Attitudes and Actions for Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Teens: Designed to provide education, social and medical services and peer support to gay, lesbian and bisexual youths between 14 and 19 years of age, this program combines case management, comprehensive health care and risk assessment counseling with small group discussion sessions. The full intervention consists of 25 group sessions in addition to regular ongoing counseling and case management services. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Be Proud! Be Responsible!: This five-hour, six-part intervention aims to prevent HIV and other STIs among adolescents ages 13 to 18 by improving their HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. In addition to HIV prevention curriculum, this program includes experiential activities designed to build skills in negotiation, refusal, and condom use. The program is culturally appropriate for inner city, black youth. It builds on young people’s sense of community and addresses the importance of protecting one’s community, as well as oneself, against the potentially negative consequences of unprotected sexual intercourse. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: selectmedia.org.
Children’s Aid Society Carrera Program: This pregnancy prevention and youth development program was created for adolescents considered to be at high risk. By employing a holistic approach, the program educates teens on the consequences of sexual activity, and emphasizes the importance of education and employment.
CLEAR: Choosing Life: Empowerment! Action! Results!: This evidence-based, health promotion program is designed for males and females ages 16 and older who are either living with HIV/AIDS or at high-risk for HIV. CLEAR is a client-centered program which is delivered one-on-one using cognitive behavioral techniques to change behavior. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.effectiveinterventions.org.
FOCUS: Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections and Unwanted Pregnancies among Young Women: The FOCUS program was originally delivered to young women US Marine Corps recruits. This four-session cognitive-behavioral group intervention addressed preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unintended pregnancies. The subject matter is mature in nature, and may not be appropriate for participants under the age of 16. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Focus on Youth (FOY) with Informed Parents and Children Together (ImPACT): FOY is an eight session group intervention that provides African American youth ages 12 to 15 with the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from HIV and other STIs. The curriculum uses fun, interactive activities such as games, role plays and discussions to convey prevention, knowledge and skill. There is also a short component for parents, ImPACT, that assists them in areas such as parental monitoring and effective communication. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.etr.org.
HIV Prevention for Adolescents in Low-Income Housing Developments: A community level HIV prevention program intended for low income adolescents living in Housing Projects. The primary goals of the program are to provide workshops and information to help adolescents develop the initial skills to enact change, and to provide sustained modeling, peer norm and social reinforcement supports for maintaining the avoidance of HIV risk behavior.
Poder Latino: A Community AIDS Prevention Program for Inner-City Latino Youth: This multifaceted, community-wide intervention is designed to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and to reduce the risk of HIV infection by increasing condom use among sexually experienced Latino teens ages 14-19. Activities are led by specially trained peer leaders and include workshops in schools, community organizations, and health centers; group discussions in the homes of Latino youth; presentations at community-wide events; and door-to-door and street corner canvassing to make available both condoms and pamphlets on how to use them. Radio and television PSAs, posters in local businesses and public transit facilities, and a quarterly newsletter published by the peer leaders provide messages promoting the use of condoms. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Reach for Health Community Youth Service Learning: This school-based service learning program incorporates both a health promotion curriculum and community involvement. Intended for seventh and eighth grade students, the curriculum focuses on sexual behaviors that may result in pregnancy, HIV infection or other STDs. Along with sexual health instruction, students are also guided in community involvement by learning and performing useful tasks for a local organization. For additional information or to order the curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Real AIDS Prevention Project: This community mobilization program is designed to reduce risk for HIV and unintended pregnancy among women in communities at high risk by increasing condom use. This intervention relies on peer-led activities, including: outreach/one-on-one brief conversations with brochures, referrals, and condom distribution; small group safer sex discussions and presentations. There is also peer interaction with community businesses, who participate in media campaigns with distribution of role model stories and prevention and health information newsletters and brochures. RAPP targets heterosexual sexually active women of reproductive age and their male partners. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.effectiveinterventions.org.
Rikers Health Advocacy Program (RHAP): This program, originally developed for use with incarcerated male adolescent drug users between 16 and 18 years of age, consists of four one hour small group sessions focusing on health education issues, particularly HIV/AIDS. The facilitator guides eight-person groups in discussing the following topics: general health, HIV and AIDS, drug abuse and its consequences, sexual behavior, health and AIDS-risk behaviors, and strategies for seeking health and social services. Active learning is emphasized, with opportunities for youths to define high-risk attitudes and behaviors, suggest alternative actions and engage in role play and rehearsal activities. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Teen Health Project: Community-Level HIV Prevention Intervention for Adolescents in Low Income Housing Development: This HIV-prevention intervention was originally developed for adolescents ages 12 to 17 living in low income housing developments. The intervention involves two workshops, two follow-up sessions, and a parent education session. Teen opinion leaders are nominated into a Teen Health Project Leadership Council that develops and implements monthly HIV-prevention activities and quarterly events in their developments. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.socio.com.
Teen Outreach Program (TOP): Based upon the principles of youth development, TOP provides adolescents with the necessary supports and opportunities to prepare for successful adulthood and avoid problem behavior. TOP has proven effective in increasing academic success and preventing teen pregnancy and other negative behaviors among program participants. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.wymanteens.org.
Promising Programs
Plain Talk/Hablando Claro: This unique approach to addressing adolescent pregnancy and STI prevention combines adult/youth communication about sex and an increase in adolescent access to contraceptives. For additional information or to order this curriculum, visit: www.plaintalk.org.