ORGANIZING ASIAN-PACIFIC ISLANDERS IN AN URBAN-COMMUNITY TO REDUCE HIV RISK - A CASE-STUDY

We present a case study of community organization efforts within the A sian Pacific Islander communities of San Diego County to reduce the ri sk of HIV transmission, We utilized a five-phase process to implement the strategies of locality development, social planning, and social ac tion: community analysis, program design and initiation, program imple mentation, program maintenance and consolidation, and program reassess ment. An evaluation of the process indicates that there were increases over time in the project's activities as well as in the levels of int eragency connectedness. This is one of the few reported efforts to org anize Asian Pacific Islander groups to address HIV transmission. Key e lements that led to the successful organization of the original projec t into a tax-exempt nonprofit entity (the Asian Pacific Islander Commu nity AIDS Project) were emphasis on community ownership, reliance on g roup consensus, use of ''gate-keepers'' to access communities, simulta neous multilevel program ming, and service to the community as a ''coo rdinating'' entity.