COMMUNITY-PLANNING FOR HIV AIDS PREVENTION IN ORANGE-COUNTY, CALIFORNIA/

HIV/AIDS remains a critical social concern in the United States. Altho ugh much progress has been made in terms of medical research, public a wareness, and prevention strategies, HIV/AIDS continues to affect more and differing groups of people. Recently, the Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention (CDC) radically restructured the nature of plannin g for HIV education and prevention services by requiring a community p lanning process, to improve the effectiveness of public policy through community participation and locally developed epidemiological data. T his paper explores the outcomes and challenges encountered in the comm unity planning process by analyzing the case of Orange County Californ ia. Orange County, widely associated with suburban affluence and high- tech development, is not commonly understood as having societal crises such as HIV/AIDS. However, this municipality has had a growing number of persons living with HIV/AIDS, and has aggressively engaged the com munity planning process in its efforts to develop more appropriate, mo re effective HIV education and prevention services. Several facets of the nature of community participation are discussed: the context of in stitutional structure and practices at the municipal, state, and feder al levels; the impacts and challenges encountered through this process ; and the effects that community input has had on institutional practi ces. The paper presents the implications of this analysis for the comm unity participation model's usefulness in planning the delivery of hum an services.