TO HANG IN THE HOOD - DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

The unique, influential, and successful characteristics of outreach as a risk behavior reduction intervention among active drug users is exa mined. The history of outreach is posited as a delineation of roles, a nd the outreach process as one of communication and role enactment. Th e premise is that the outreach worker's juxtaposition of multiple comm unicative roles facilitates success with HIV outreach interventions. T he word ''outreach'' implies a desired object that eludes one's ready grasp. In tile attempt to educate the active drug user about HIV risk behavior, it is the addict that often eludes the educator's ready gras p; a small dilemma for the creative outreach worker. An ethnographic d escription is provided of four different outreach workers' abilities t o penetrate social networks, locate and recruit hidden populations, co ntextualize client behavior, respond to client needs, and build trust necessary to engage them in risk-reduction interventions, while still adhering to program recruitment guidelines. Investigative, study, and outreach limitations are discussed.