Strengthening Community Capacity For HIV Prevention And Care Among African Caribbean And Black (ACB) Women In Ontario: An Interdisciplinary Community Based Participatory Research Initiative
In Ontario, ACB women are overrepresented among new HIV diagnoses, in part due to social and structural factors, such as HIV-related stigma, gender discrimination, and racial discrimination. This study seeks to create, implement, and evaluate an ACB community-based peer-led intervention to improve access to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Canada. The CADWO research project is led by Prof. Josephine Etowa (CO-CREATH Lab, University of Ottawa) with co-Directors Dr. Notisha Massaquoi (University of Toronto) and Dr. Francisca Omorodion (University of Windsor). It involves a team of researchers, service providers, and community members in the three study sites: Ottawa, Toronto, and Windsor. The project will create, implement, and evaluate an African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) community-based peer-led intervention (Peer Equity Navigators, or PENs) to improve access to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Ontario. This is a multi-site(Ottawa Toronto and Windsor) five-year phase-based study project that will be guided by Community-based participatory research, intersectionality, and implementation science frameworks. over a 5-year period, the project will be implemented in five non-iterative phases: 1: Community and partner engagement; 2: Critical health and racial literacy training curriculum and HIV resource development; 3: Implementation research with the first cohort of trained HIV Peer Equity Navigators (PENs); 4: Training of second cohort of HIV PENs and program implementation across Ontario; and 5: Evaluation, knowledge sharing and plans for national scale up. We will use a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data, including surveys and qualitative interviews to analyze and identify implementation scenarios and effectiveness.