The Womens Collective

1
The Womens Collective

• Adapting a DEBI project for African American
  Women Prosper and the Generations Project

2
Prosper Program Staff

• Ndidi N Amutah- Prosper! Program Coordinator
• Vanessa Edmundson- Prosper! Program Associate
• Diane Jones- Clinical Supervisor
• Cathleen Maine- Development Director
• Patricia Nalls- Founder/Executive Director

3
The Mission of TWC

• To meet the self-defined needs of women living
  with HIV/AIDS
• To reduce barriers to care for women and their
  families by creating partnerships among service
  providers

4
Key Components of TWC

• Women-Focused
• Peer-Based
• Family Centered
• Women Living with HIV

5
TWCs History and Who We Help

• Pats Story
• Only local DC AIDS service organization created
  by and for women living with HIV/AIDS
• Serving hundreds of HIV women

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Demographics of TWCs clients

• The majority of women (98) who have participated
  to date were African American, the remaining 2
  were Latinas.
• The majority of the women (56) are in their
  mid-40s.
• Approximately 78 of the women receive public
  health insurance.
• More than 90 of the women make under
  15,000/year and for 18 of the women, there was
  no income or it was not reported.

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Program Goals

• Alleviate maladaptive coping and psychological
  distress among women with HIV
• Reduce the risk of HIV transmission (encourage
  the cessation of high-risk behaviors)
• Reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission

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Program Goals cont.

• Reduce the progression of HIV disease (improve
  adherence to medication therapies and other
  treatments)
• Increase access to care and support by linking
  with family-centered case managers to facilitate
  access to sexual health services and other
  medical, psychiatric, social service, and
  community programs
• Decrease risk for re-infection with HIV disease
• Decrease risk for co-infection with other STDs.

9
Prevention Case Management

• Addresses behavior change/modification
• Provides information on HIV treatment/adherence
  information
• Focuses on meeting the woman where she is
• Incentives offered

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PROSPER! Program

• Prosper!
• Group-Level Intervention (GLI)
• Led by PWP associate
• 2 hour session, 2x a week
• Skills-building group for women
• 10 sessions modeled on CDCs Healthy
  Relationships Curriculum (5 sessions), with 5
  additional woman-focused sessions created by TWC
• Topics include Disclosure, Medical Adherence,
  Risky Behaviors, Ethnic and Gender Pride
• Incentives offered

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TWC curriculum

• Women focused
• Client centered
• program provides peer support/counseling
• creates connections between care-seekers and
  caregivers
• promotes the participation and empowerment of
  women, families, partner's) and members of their
  support network in developing care plans based on
  their self-defined needs.
• support women as a whole
• intended to affect their physical and mental
  health in a positive manner

12
TWC curriculum cont.

• TWC sessions focus on
• gender and ethnic pride
• self healing
• empowerment
• treatment adherence
• mother-to-child transmission
• biological markers
• family coping
• co-infections

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Pros and Cons of Adaptation

• Pros
• The curriculum is more woman focused, and client
  centered
• It concentrates on topics that are important to
  the overall well-being of the women
• Women get a chance to center on themselves, and
  not HIV
• Gender and Ethnic Pride
• Empowerment

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Pros and Cons of Adaptation cont.

• Cons
• Develop an additional evaluation component to
  measure the adapted curriculum

15
Prosper! Lessons Learned

• Challenges in scheduling appointments and
  reaching women
• Extensive paperwork
• Low literacy rates
• working with an established organization like
  Mosaica will grant us the time, effort, and
  resources necessary for the enhancement and
  eventual dissemination of our evaluation tools.

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Future Recommendations for Program

• We would like to provide technical assistance for
  other organizations around the country
• Disseminate project information through
  presentations at local, national, and
  international conferences
• Submit information to journals for publication
• Become a CDC DEBI intervention!

17
Evaluation

• Background
• Changed evaluators after the second cohort
• Current Phase
• Data collection (early April)
• Data Analysis (end of April - May)
• Further restructuring of evaluation design (May)

18
Evaluation

• TWC-PWP Evaluator
• Mosaica The Center for Nonprofit Development
  and Pluralism
• As a values-based multicultural nonprofit
  capacity-building organization, Mosaica helps
  community-based nonprofit organizations in the
  U.S. and internationally become more effective
  and sustainable.
• Its special commitment is to strengthen and
  support groups that serve and empower groups
  whose voices are least likely to be heard when
  public policies are adopted and resources are
  allocated.

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Evaluation

• Key Evaluation Questions
• Is the design of the PWP program adequate to meet
  program goals and objectives?
• To what extent did TWC maintain fidelity to the
  PWP curriculum?
• To what extent is the Prevention with Positives
  Program meeting their stated goals and
  objectives?
• What are the programs strengths and areas for
  improvements?

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Evaluation

• Data Collection Tools and Methods
• Pre- and Post-tests (3)
• PCM Intake
• TWC - GLI
• Overall Program
• Group Observation Form
• PCM Qualitative Data Form
• Follow-up interviews with past participants

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Evaluation

• Evaluation Team
• Emily Gantz McKay, Founding President and CEO
  (Mosaica)
• Hila Berl, Program Administrator (Mosaica)
• Nicole Robinson, Program and Evaluation
  Specialist (Mosaica)
• Prevention with Positives Staff (TWC)
• Contact Information
• Email nicole_at_mosaica.org
• Phone [phone]
• Website www.mosaica.org

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Quotes from Prosper participants

• this is the best group I have been in
• I feel much better about myself
• Its about mewhat I want, and how I feel
• I feel more empowered now!

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Pictures of Program Participants
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Pictures of Program Participants
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Program Staff
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Brainstorming and QA

• Thank you!!!

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Open-Discussion

• Steps for replication of program
• Has anyone else adapted DEBIs?
• Does anyone else work with HIV positive women?
• General feedback is welcomed!!

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The Womens Collective

• 1436 U Street, NW
• Washington, DC 20009
• 202.483.7003
• info_at_womenscollective.org
• ndidi_at_womenscollective.org