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The authors describe the implementation, results, and evaluations of a participatory action research project in which they used qualitative methods to do HIV prevention education with lesbians and bisexual women. This grassroots project combined collective consciousness-raising, qualitative field interviewing, and individualized HIV prevention education in an experientially intense intervention sustained over a 2-year period in community sites. Systematic data collection about HIV risk taking among lesbians and bisexual women was conjoined with efforts to mobilize the community for behavior change to prevent HIV. A cadre of peer educators conducted 1,189 field interviews and produced 55 HIV prevention presentations with a total of 3,665 women in attendance. Key findings describe the HIV risk taking common in this population and their needs for support in reducing risk. Process evaluations of the project suggest that its combined individual and group approach and its continuity over time were effective. Outcomes suggest that the project positively affected participants' intent to change risk behaviors, supported incremental changes to reduce risk, assisted participants in the interpersonal realm of partner negotiations, and began to change community conventions about sexual expectations and practices.
A persistent problem in the majority of HIV prevention projects that tend to rely on single, easy-to-deliver interventions is the failure to accommodate lasting behavior change. Stryker and his colleagues (1995) advised that sustained interventions of a more intense nature are needed for long-term behavior change resulting in risk reduction. Another common difficulty in HIV prevention intervention is achieving community-level change. Empirical evidence indicates that without heightened community awareness of HIV risks and "normalization" of safer sex and drug use practices, individual members find it difficult to adopt and retain behaviors that reduce HIV risk ("Creating Supportive," 1995; Non, McElmurry, Moeti, & Tlou, 1992).
A community solidarity-building approach like participatory action research holds great promise for sustaining both individual and community change to prevent HIV. In the tradition of liberationist movements, practitioners of participatory action research work with groups as coresearchers to facilitate consciousness-raising and social engagement (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991; Stevens, 1989). In participatory action research, the everyday experiences and wisdom of communities, often oppressed communities, are honored in the production of knowledge directly useful to the groups themselves. From a foundation of radical commitment and authentic collaboration, researchers...