The primary goal of this proposed project is to provide college level African American women with the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS/STDs through the practice of safer sexual behaviors and the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors. The project will use the P.E.A.R.L.S.™ intervention tool to promote the practice of safer sexual behaviors. Healthy lifestyle behaviors will be promoted through a culturally-based dance movement experience and a food preparation/cooking demonstration called “All About Me”. We believe it is important to provide young people with opportunities to experience and demonstrate healthy lifestyle behaviors while encouraging them to avoid harmful behaviors.

The overall goal of this program is to reduce the number of new cases of HIV infection among women enrolled at HBCU campuses. NSU will pilot the P.E.A.R.L.S.™ program (Peer Education on AIDS, Relationships, Living Female, and Self Love) during the 2006-2007 school year and refine it during the 2007-2008 school year. P.E.A.R.L.S. ™ is an HIV/AIDS prevention program for African American women on college campuses. It is a one-session HIV/AIDS prevention intervention that employs a combination of culture and gender based educational activities that are delivered through video, Black literature, music, group exercises, and peer-led discussions. The target population is African American women attending college, who are aged 18-24. The core delivery strategies of the intervention are–1) small group sessions of no more than 15 women, 2) campus-based, 3) peer-facilitated and 4) videos, literature, and music are used as triggers for discussion of key issues and retention of information. Eight P.E.A.R.L.S.™ sessions will be conducted on the campus with at least 80 female participants.

This project will target incoming freshmen females living on-campus, followed by freshmen females living off-campus. Additionally, funding was included to present an activity addressing HIV/AIDS for males on campus. This project will culminate each year in the Virginia HBCU Women’s Health Expo that will target 20 women from each of Virginia’s 5 HBCUs. A Health Symposium Advisory Committee will also be formed.