Innovative Outreach Strategies for Reaching Consumers Panel: Let's Stop HIV Together's Innovative Outreach Strategies to Amplify Campaign Efforts

Background:  Act Against AIDS (AAA) is a national initiative launched in 2009 by the CDC and the White House to refocus attention on HIV and AIDS in the U.S.  AAA focuses on raising awareness of HIV among all Americans and reducing the risk of infection among the populations disproportionately affected by HIV – gay and bisexual men, African Americans, and Latinos. AAA is an umbrella program that comprises multiple targeted social marketing campaigns for both healthcare providers and consumers and includes national and community partnerships. 

Program background:  Let’s Stop HIV Together (Together) is a national campaign within the AAA umbrella that raises awareness about HIV and its impact on the lives of all Americans.  It strives to reduce stigma and complacency surrounding HIV with a creative platform featuring people living with HIV alongside those who support them.  A goal of Together is to engage individuals and organizations at the community level by using cost-effective outreach strategies in order to amplify campaign messages. The Together Network (Network) is a coalition of campaign participants that work to extend the reach of the Together campaign through their connections and affiliations with health departments and AIDS service organizations. Last fall people across the world participated in Positively Aware’s fourth annual digital photo sharing initiative “A Day with HIV.” In an effort to extend “A Day with HIV” beyond virtual photo sharing, the Together campaign team, working with Positively Aware, transformed the online initiative into a community photo exhibit.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The Network infrastructure to date has provided its 30 members with access to opportunities and resources for initiating HIV awareness and anti-stigma activities. As a result, Network members have participated in a number of high profile events on behalf of the campaign (e.g., the 2013 U.S. Conference on AIDS), contributed to blog postings on several popular blogs (e.g., the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Blog), and represented the campaign at numerous events throughout the year . The “A Day with HIV” community exhibit made its debut on World AIDS Day 2013 at the Atlanta Public Library where the exhibit was viewed by an average of 700 individuals per day.  The exhibit was then displayed at the 26th National Conference on LGBT Equality where it was seen by more than 3,500 attendees. Additional potential cities for the exhibit include Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, FL., and a West coast city, before finding a permanent home in the Atlanta area.

Conclusions:  Expanding the reach of a campaign at the community level requires unique strategies to capture local attention and build on local networks. Arming Together participants with campaign resources and technical assistance has allowed campaign messages to further penetrate target communities. And the partnership with Positively Aware allowed CDC to leverage the popularity of an existing initiative to reach new audience.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Practitioners looking to expand the local reach of a campaign need to consider how local efforts can fill campaign gaps (e.g., reaching specific audiences) in order to identify best partners and opportunities to help fill those gaps.