Allure Alliance aims create sexual health education and HIV/STI prevention and treatment podcast designed for African American/Black women to increase HIV/STI awareness, health literacy, and increase likelihood of HIV testing/ treatment among this population. Developing a health education podcast specifically designed for African American/Black women who reside in the Austin/Travis County and surrounding metro areas will introduce, discuss, and reinforce HIV prevention/treatment and wellness strategies. This will be done through providing culturally sensitive messaging, health education and options for linkage to local resources that provide HIV, STI, and PrEP services. African American women experience excess morbidity in obesity, diabetes, and adverse birth outcomes, and are more likely than women of other ethnic groups to die from breast and cervical cancer, cardiovascular disease, and HIV/AIDS. There is a need to garner a better understanding of the complex nature of health disparities experienced by African American women in order to move the field forward in making progress toward achieving health equity for this population. African American/Black women are disproportionately impacted by HIV infection. While African American/Black women only make up a small percentage of the overall population the data shows that African American/Black women still make up a disproportionate amount of new infections. In Austin-Travis County, the rate of African America/Black women living with HIV (683.6/100,000 population) is 8.6 times the rate of Hispanic women living with HIV and 16.8 times the rate of White women living with HIV. Over 2.7% of African America/Black women age 35-44 in Travis County are living with HIV ). The most common way that African America/Black women in Travis County get HIV is through unprotected sex with an HIV infected man. Nine percent of African America/Black women in Travis County were diagnosed with HIV late in the progression of the disease; they received their HIV and AIDS diagnoses within one year. One in 146 African America/Black Women in Travis County are living with HIV . African American/Black women aged 13-24 are estimated to have 20 times greater risk of HIV acquisition than their White counterparts, and six times greater than their Hispanic counterparts . A 2017 study of racial disparities among patients living with HIV in Texas supports the national trend that African American/Blacks with HIV have higher mortality rates when compared to other racial groups. It is time to address the glaring HIV infection rates among African American/Black women in the Austin/Travis county and surrounding areas.
We will use the space to record a fact-based health education podcast tailored to the needs of African American/Black women to reinforce access to HIV/STI prevention and treatment efforts. We want to add to the HIV/AIDS prevention vision to help Texas become a state where HIV is rare, and every person will have access to high-quality prevention, care, and treatment regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socio-economic status. Each health education podcast will help to build a strong and informed network of HIV/STI prevention, PrEP advocates, and establish a call-to-action message that encourages safer sexual behavior in preventing infectious diseases [HIV/AIDS/STIs].
Peerspace is on a mission to bring people together. We believe it is impossible to achieve that goal unless we also fight for equality and access to resources in the communities we serve.
Having a space to gather, create, and exchange ideas is an important part of any movement. In order to magnify voices that are often quieted, Peerspace will sponsor venues for people who challenge prejudice and fight for social justice and equality.
Each quarter, we will sponsor space for three projects that are relevant to our community. These projects can range from fundraisers and educational initiatives to art exhibits and photo series.
