Not-One Size Fits All: Engaging Black College Students In the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

Background: Me at Thirty (Me @ 30) is a communications campaign designed by the National Council of Negro Women , Inc. (NCNW), and the content development firm 2MPower Media, to encourage African American college students to think about how their choices today may adversely affect their tomorrows. The overarching goal of the campaign is to change social norms as it relates to HIV prevention and awareness on Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU’s) by normalizing conversations about sex, gender, and power in African American communities.Nationally, African American persons who are between the ages of 15-24 are disproportionately affected by HIV and STDs.  CDC data also suggests that 40% of new infections among African Americans are aged 13-29. Further, research suggests that college students engage in several high-risk behaviors, which points to the importance of addressing this population.

Program background: Specifically, the Me @ 30 campaign endeavors to decrease stigma surrounding HIV among college students on HBCU campuses, increase HIV testing and awareness of status among college students on HBCU campuses, and increase dialogue around sex and sexuality as it pertains to HIV and safer sex practices.Me @ 30 seeks to address the issues that directly impact African American college students through the following technological components: 1) a web portal and Tumblr blog 2) online video series 3) Twitter and Facebook 4) printed collateral 5) street team outreach 6) campus events and programming and 7) physical and digital focus groups. Upon formative evaluation, those who attend Bennett College and Howard University strongly prefer messaging about HIV/AIDS through social and digital media.

Evaluation Methods and Results: From this preliminary data, an evaluation plan was developed to collect data in reference to the goals of the campaign.  Me @ 30 has implemented a time series design where once a month, on both college campuses, a random sample of students is surveyed regarding their awareness of the campaign, dialogue about HIV and safer sex, and their HIV testing behavior.  Additionally at strategic campus events, Me @ 30 conducts activities and collects data on social norms around HIV and testing.  Lastly, through analytics offered by the social media sites, data is collected regarding involvement with these sites. Preliminary data shows dramatic growth and reach of the campaign. Since the launch of its social networks in October, Me@ 30 has 1,957 Facebook friends and more than 30,000 views on its YouTube page.

Conclusions: This presentation will discuss best practices and challenges for developing a youth-centered hybrid campaign like Me @ 30 that combines digital media and traditional engagement—video, social media, Web, events, and a street team—to effectively, yet uniquely, engage African American college students around HIV/AIDS in efforts to increase testing and affect behavior change.

Implications for research and/or practice: Through this project, we seek to replicate this program on  other HBCUS as well as predominantly white institutions on a larger scale.