Structural and Community Change Outcomes of the Connect‐to‐Protect Coalitions: Trials and Triumphs Securing Adolescent Access to HIV Prevention, Testing, and Medical Care. Issue 1 (29th August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Miller, Robin Lin; Reed, Sarah J.; Chiaramonte, Danielle; Strzyzykowski, Trevor; Spring, Hannah; Acevedo‐Polakovich, Ignacio D.; Chutuape, Kate; Cooper‐Walker, Bendu; Boyer, Cherrie B.; Ellen, Jonathan M.
• Is Part Of: American journal of community psychology. Volume 60:Issue 1/2(2017)
• Page Start: 199
• Page End: 214
• Publication Date: 2017-08-29
• Subjects: HIV/AIDS -- Youth/adolescents -- Coalitions -- AIDS competence -- Structural change -- Community capacity; Community psychology -- Periodicals; Community mental health services -- Periodicals; Community psychiatry -- Periodicals; Community Mental Health Services -- Periodicals; Community Psychiatry -- Periodicals; 155.905
• DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12162
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-0562

Abstract

Highlights: Coalition mobilization can contribute to the creation of AIDS‐competent communities. HIV coalitions benefit from leaders who can confront political opposition to structural changes. Coalitions can contribute to addressing the structural factors that promote HIV‐risk among youth. Abstract: Connect to Protect (C2P), a 10‐year community mobilization effort, pursued the dual aims of creating communities competent to address youth's HIV‐related risks and removing structural barriers to youth health. We used Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT) to examine the perceived contributions and accomplishments of 14 C2P coalitions. We interviewed 318 key informants, including youth and community leaders, to identify the features of coalitions' context and operation that facilitated and undermined their ability to achieve structural change and build communities' capability to manage their local adolescent HIV epidemic effectively. We coded the interviews using an a priori coding scheme informed by CCAT and scholarship on AIDS‐competent communities. We found community mobilization efforts like C2P can contribute to addressing the structural factors that promote HIV‐risk among youth and to community development. We describe how coalition leadership, collaborative synergy, capacity building, and local community context influence coalitions' ability to successfully implement HIV‐related structural change, demonstrating empirical support for many of CCAT's propositions. We discuss implications for how community mobilization efforts might succeed in laying the foundation for an AIDS‐competent community.