HIV Prevention Evaluation Initiative

AIDS Resources, Information and Services of Santa Clara County (ARIS)
Gay Asian Men's Project

Research Summary

Background:

For the past two years staff at ARIS worked with CAPS in a feasibility study to determine what types of HIV prevention programs would be the most effective and interesting for gay Asian men (GAM) in San Jose. We had two research questions:

Our objectives were to design a formative evaluation of gay Asian men in San Jose to inform the development of an HIV prevention intervention, and to develop an HIV prevention intervention for GAM and evaluate its feasibility and acceptability.

Formative Evaluation:

Methods of evaluation consisted of a formative evaluation (6 informal interviews with HIV prevention experts, 5 one-on-one interviews with gatekeepers and key informants, and 4 focus groups). Some of the issues we found in the interviews were a feeling of devaluation (e.g. API men were not included in mainstream gay culture), rejection, values in relationships and friends, and transience. We outlined focus group questions based on these early findings to answer:

We found that issues with gay Vietnamese men were surfacing, and so to determine if they had specific needs, we planned to do separate focus groups with them and compare responses with general gay Asian men. But because of our resources, we found that we did not have the capacity to conduct these focus groups and to carry out a specific program.

Focus group responses showed more feelings of social discomfort among other Asians, a low perception of HIV risk, that San Jose hinders a gay lifestyle, and that the definition of being gay has a sexual context. We used a community advisory board (CAB) of representative from three social/support groups to help interpret the findings and establish perimeters for the interventions. The group also developed six messages to be delivered through the interventions, such as "API men are at high risk of HIV infection" and that "the community in San Jose is what you make of it." The group developed three interventions and also formed the GAM Net (Gay Asian Men's Network).

Interventions:

Positive Connection - a gay Asian HIV positive speaker's bureau that addressed the low perception of HIV risk and helped increase visibility of HIV/AIDS in the gay API community. One of our presenters stated he joined because "there are not HIV positive Asian role models." We have conducted three speaker's engagements, reaching 29 gay APIs. Self-reported surveys showed that 55% of the men did not know an HIV positive gay Asian man, that 93% of would get tested because of the presentation, and that all would recommend the presentation to a friend.

A Series of Community Events- designed to address community building and to create the social atmosphere that gay API men said they would like to see. We worked with the social/support groups with the idea that one group hosts the event while the others attend for support. Each of the "Labor of Love" (Nov 98), "Trick for a Treat" (Oct 98), and "GVA Thanksgiving" (Nov 98) events had an HIV prevention activity. We learned along the way that it is very important to make the activity quick, interactive, and complementary to the groups' theme. 48 people participated in exit interviews. We found that most men would attend the next GAM Net sponsored event and also talk to a GAM Net representative during the activity.

A web site: www.gamnet.org- offers information, access, and anonymity, especially for gay API men who are closeted, coming out, or who do not attend local groups and events. Sections of the web site include HIV/AIDS, Who's Who, Contact Information with links, Articles, and a Calendar of events and meeting times. We attempted several email lists, outreach, and contests to get people to complete an online survey. Still, we did not receive sufficient data from the survey to determine the web site's feasibility. However, with 311 (over 500 as of 2/15/99) "hits", or people visiting the web site, we have found that a web site is a useful avenue for getting information to gay API men.

Forward:

One of our unexpected products from the research study was the formation of GAM Net from the community advisory board. San Jose's three social/support groups for gay Asian men are working together for the first time to build community. Because we designed the interventions to be cost-effective, the GAM Net will conduct its own speaker's bureau, maintain the web site, and hold other community events. One such event is the Winter Ball "debut" in January 1999. Project staff will continue working with GAM Net to disseminate the findings from this study and to ensure that the project's momentum will continue through the gay Asian community.

For more information, please contact:

Eugene Beronilla
ARIS
1550 The Alameda, Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 293-2747, x 105

or

Colleen Hoff
Center for AIDS Prevention Studies
74 New Montgomery Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 597-9158

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