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According to the
Alabama Department of Public Health, the number of people infected
with HIV in Mobile County is 2,425 people as of December 31, 2007.
Eighty - the number of new infections diagnosed during January
through March, as reported by the county on March 31, 2008 - shows
the rising trend facing the Mobile area. In an effort to combat this
trend, a new outreach program is being developed by South Alabama
CARES’s Education Department to target 21-40 year-olds in Mobile.
Project Helmet is an outreach program designed to promote HIV
prevention and education to 21-40 year-old who partake in nightlife
activities, including the consumption of alcohol, in the downtown
Mobile entertainment district.
The nightlife outreach will deliver free safer sex materials and
information packets to the participating establishments once a
month. The establishments will place the materials and information
in a helmet provided by CARES in an area easily accessible to their
customers. Each participating establishment will be checked monthly
to ensure that enough material and information are available.
The public outreach portion will involve the South Alabama CARES
educators spending time downtown once a month to educate nightlife
customers. The educators will hand out safer sex materials called
“Party Paks”. The “Party Paks” will serve as an eye-catching tool to
provide basic information about South Alabama CARES and safe sex
materials. This will help educate our target group, as well as
provide more visibility to South Alabama CARES and the services that
the agency offers to the public.
The prevention and education portion of Project Helmet will include
presentations to our target audience in a “safe and secure setting”
for the attendees. Topics covered during presentation will include
information on HIV transmission, prevention, nature of the
infection, and the stigmas surrounding HIV+ individuals. At the
conclusion of each presentation, safer sex materials will be
distributed, according to the instructions and permission of the
organization that has requested the presentations.
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