Doing it well : a good practice guide for choosing and implementing community-based HIV prevention interventions with African communities in England

HIV prevention work with African communities in the UK remains of paramount importance given the continuous rise in HIV infections within this population over the last few years. In 2002 a total of 9,712 Black Africans were diagnosed with HIV and they remain the second largest social group affected by HIV epidemic after gay men. Against this background, the English National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV, published by the Department of Health in 2001, prioritises HIV prevention within African communities as a target population. In the absence of a standard practice guide for implementing HIV prevention interventions among African communities, health promotion specialists, community workers and volunteers have used various innovative methods to reach African communities, in order to provide information and skills necessary to address their HIV prevention needs. Key among these are information needs, need to understand safer sex practices, access to services and the need to address HIV-related stigma. The first of its kind in the United Kingdom, this practice guide gives practical key approaches and methods used to date in HIV prevention work with African communities in the United Kingdom. Through identification of best practice in intervention methods, the practice guide provides a coherent framework that will guide and direct the provision of community based HIV primary prevention interventions to African communities. In this way, it functions as a good practice guide that will ensure a standard approach to the delivery of a chosen intervention or method. This practice guide is primarily aimed at community-based HIV prevention providers, but it is also useful to those with responsibility for commissioning HIV prevention work with African communities