Neighborhood Unity Program (NUP) Women for Health

Reading, Pennsylvania has experienced an increasingly high incidence of both IV drug use (heroin) and HIV infection that is over represented among Hispanic residents. In response to this problem, the Community Prevention Partnership of Berks County received funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to support the development and implementation of the Neighborhood Unity Program (NUP) a community outreach and educational intervention targeting Hispanic women.

The NUP employs individual, group and community prevention strategies designed to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse among participants, their families and their communities. The intervention will occur in two public housing developments and in Reading’s Weed & Seed targeted area. The format is a 12-week program with six sessions covering HIV/AIDS and substance prevention as well as sessions on conflict resolution, family relationships, self-esteem, stress management, and accessing resources. The second activity of the project will support the development of a Woman’s Health Council (WHC) (Sikkema et al, 2000) in each of the four project sites.

Women who have completed the educational program will be recruited to serve on the WHC and participate in a specialized train the trainer program curriculum (Meschke et al, 1999). They will then serve in a peer educator role to teach their neighbors and family how to talk to their children about substance abuse and HIV/AIDS and they will assist with community education on HIV/AIDS and substance abuse prevention through community events and activities aimed at adults, young adults, families, and youth. Finally the project, through the Berks County HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Service Providers Committee, will increase the coordination of and access to HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and other community services for the Hispanic population in the City of reading that is increasingly isolated and marginalized in prevention and treatment programs and services.

Contact Information:
Gricel Torres
gtorres@community preventionpartnership.org
610-376-6988

This is a free program.