Training trainers: Evaluating services provided to children with HIV and their families

This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an innovative "train-the-trainers " social work program for organizing services for children with AIDS and their caregivers in an urban setting. Based on prior empirical research and definition of problems and needs derived from community members and service providers, a conference to train trainers was conducted. Our preliminary evaluation suggests that the trainees rated faculty high on teaching expertise, held a high degree of knowledge about HIV and children with HIV and their caregivers following the training sessions, and reported positive attitude changes resulting from conference participation that would enhance their roles as volunteer trainers. Implications for further research and program development are discussed. Although AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) affects persons at every stage of the life cycle in all socioeconomic levels, its modes of transmission primarily place poor urban families at greatest risk of having a child who is HIV (human immune deficiency virus) infected. As illuminated by Stuntzner-Gibson (1991), the elements of urban poverty and intravenous drug use are the factors that are most closely associated with increased risk of HIV infection in this country. Unfortunately, these families seem to present the most difficult challenge when social workers attempt to identify and serve them because of multiple problems that are often incompatible with th