One promising strategy to prevent sexual violence (SV) is to involve youth as leaders in developing prevention initiatives. Few peer-led prevention initiatives have been evaluated; thus, it is particularly important to examine the implementation of such programs in process evaluations. This article describes a process evaluation of a youth-led, community-based SV prevention initiative. Our aims were to (a) track the number and timing of prevention initiative events, (b) assess perceptions of the initiative among youth in the community, (c) evaluate perceived benefits and drawbacks of the initiative among youth who attended events, and (d) explore perceptions of the initiative’s impact among highly involved youth. We used data from multiple sources (i.e., implementation tracking, surveys with youth, semi-structured interviews) and from multiple types of youth (i.e., youth in the general population, youth who attended programming events, and youth who were highly involved, such as completing an internship). The program was highly acceptable to youth. They reported gaining both SV prevention skills (e.g., bystander skills) and more general skills (e.g., leadership, communication) through involvement with the initiative. We identified several key features that contributed to the success of events, such as a supportive and non-judgmental environment, content that felt useful to youth, and time for interaction with peers. However, some challenges such as negative peer behavior at events emerged as potential pitfalls of the initiative. These insights can be used by researchers and practitioners to further develop and refine peer-led prevention initiatives.
Over the past decade, landmark collaboration between regulatory agencies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, and patient community representatives has enabled the development and approval of new hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment regimens with unprecedented speed. By providing a neutral platform for cross-sector engagement, the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research's(1) HCV Drug Development Advisory Group played a critical role in fostering this collaboration and expediting drug development. The applicability of this model to other therapeutic areas should be explored.
The psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on individuals, families, and communities will likely persist for years to come. While briefing notes informed by disaster psychology and crisis management have been released to guide social workers and other mental health professionals in their work during the pandemic, the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19 may require inclusion of additional theories of trauma and resilience. Thus, this article first examines the application of complex trauma theory as an effective framework for assessing the psychosocial impacts of the pandemic, especially among individuals with prior trauma exposure, those with preexisting mental illness, and communities affected by marginalization and historical trauma. Authors then discuss the importance of using trauma-informed practice to address the effects of the pandemic on both individual and community levels during this unprecedented moment in history.
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