DIVAS
HIV education for girls
When the CDC reported that one in four teenaged girls had a sexually transmitted disease, with rates disproportionately higher in minority communities, AIDS Community Resources responded with programs to make female adolescents smarter about sexual safety and better able to stand up for their values. The program is called DIVAS - Discovering Important and Valuable information About Self. DIVAS is designed to reduce risky sexual behaviors and improve safer sex skills among African American and Hispanic adolescents.
It’s serious business, requiring a commitment by participants to attend eight two-hour sessions. “The first day, they were a little skeptical,” said DIVAS trainer and HIV Prevention Specialist Joanne Jimenez. “The second day they were so ready to come back, even asking their parents if they could come early.” Participants get information on HIV and related risk behaviors and the importance of abstinence and risk reduction. Through discussions, games, videos, presentations, demonstrations, role plays, and practice, adolescents learn problem solving, decision-making, communication, condom negotiation, behavioral self-management, and condom use skills.
You, too, can be a DIVA. Training sessions are scheduled year-round in Syracuse and Utica. We encourage DIVAS to share the information they learn with their friends and family and to provide support for their peers to reduce risky behaviors. The first graduating class was so excited and shared information with their friends, there’s already a waiting list for class number two. Call Joanne at 315.475.2430x256 to sign up.
CAPTION: CNY’s first DIVAS class with their diplomas, from left: Francheska Viruet, Arianna Williams, Sandra Agyepong and Chantelle Bermudez