Communities in Action: Utilizing Community Engagement to Promote HIV Treatment

Background:  HIV Treatment Works, part of CDC's Act Against AIDS initiative, is a national social marketing campaign with the goal of encouraging people living with HIV (PLWH) to get in care, start taking HIV medications, remain in care, and adhere to treatment. HIV Treatment Works is CDC’s first campaign focused on HIV treatment and features real people discussing how regular care and treatment empowers them to live well with HIV, and highlights the barriers they have faced on their journey. HIV Treatment Works’ primary target audience is PLWH; a secondary audience is social service and medical providers serving PLWH.

Program background:  CDC has employed community engagement strategies using City Coordinators to localize the campaign. In each market, a community engagement meeting is held with HIV stakeholders to learn of local needs and how the campaign can best be deployed to grow awareness of the importance of HIV treatment. Based on these findings, City Coordinators develop tailored campaign implementation plans, ensuring they reach the organizations, providers, and local venues/events that reach the target audience.  City Coordinators are provided with ongoing technical assistance (including social media support), training, tools, presentations, and campaign materials. In select markets, participants who are featured in the campaign augment City Coordinators’ engagement and outreach efforts. City Coordinator activities are supported through targeted paid national and local media buys. When the campaign launched in September 2014, community engagement efforts focused on three markets – Atlanta, GA, Washington, D.C., and Miami, FL. In Spring 2015, the campaign’s successful engagement expanded to Baton Rouge, LA, Memphis, TN, New Orleans, LA, and New York, NY. In Spring 2017, the “communities in action” model is being replicated in two additional cities, Columbia, SC, and Jackson, MS.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  As part of Act Against AIDS, ongoing process evaluation is conducted for the overall initiative and each of the campaigns. For community engagement activities this includes monitoring the number of events, event date/type, estimated attendance, ZIP code of event location, audience description, any HIV testing  provided and results, number of materials disseminated, and any social media used to promote the event. From the campaign’s launch in September 2014 through December 2016, City Coordinators have been involved in a total of 207 community events, reaching an estimated total audience of 325,112 individuals. A total of 141,323 campaign materials were distributed during that time period.

Conclusions:  The community engagement model is a proven method for creating collaboration and interaction with and among stakeholders in a city. CDC-developed materials complement and augment community efforts to improvement HIV treatment awareness.  

Implications for research and/or practice:  The community engagement model implemented by HIV Treatment Works is replicable and scalable for other organizations and governmental entities. Specifically, the leveraging of City Coordinators to raise awareness through their knowledge of key influencers and existing community networks offers a unique opportunity for sustained and deep engagement in the health promotion arena.