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| From the Author HIV and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention is fundamentally a matter of communication between people. Of course, prevention begins with the individual and includes education and self-awareness. But just as these diseases are transmitted from person to person, the process of prevention occurs between people. Humans are social creatures. HIV and other STDs are human diseases. The challenges they pose are unique to us. The AIDS epidemic has transformed people's lives and made unlikely experts out of many individuals affected by HIV and its related issues. A tiny virus, HIV became a huge public health concern by the late 1980s. Its toll in terms of human tragedy continues to rise and with it a growing need for research, health care, and prevention. In response, many of us learned by doing — by necessity, we became AIDS advocates and caregivers, policy makers and educators. Then as now, we do work in the AIDS field because the work has to be done. Without a cure or vaccine for HIV, prevention is still the most effective way to slow, and perhaps, stop the AIDS epidemic. Although the basic points of HIV prevention are fairly straightforward, the process of translating knowledge into safe(r) behavior is incredibly complicated. To be effective, HIV education must address some of the most intimate aspects of personal experience and activity. In addition to the behavioral issues, the political challenges to successful programming are formidable and include the current push towards abstinence-only curricula. Presenting HIV education, like participating in it, can be awkward and even difficult. Ignoring HIV education, however, can be lethal. I began teaching about HIV prevention in 1989 as an Outward Bound instructor. My students posed basic questions about AIDS and much more complex questions about how HIV would affect their lives. In 1992, I founded a nonprofit organization called Redefining Actions and Decisions (RAD) Educational Programs expressly for the purpose of developing and implementing interactive HIV education. In 1996, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation generously gave RAD funding to conduct a 21-month national demonstration project. The aim of this project was to learn if regular classroom teachers could successfully implement the RAD model in diverse middle schools from four states. The research data was very positive. Since 1992, RAD has expanded from a grassroots program serving 2,500 fifth-twelfth grade students a semester in the Colorado mountains to a national program meeting the needs of students across America through general distribution of EveryBody which is now the featured curriculum of a 5-year federally funded national dissemination project. As its name implies, EveryBody is for everybody: teachers, families, health professionals, others who work with youth, and most importantly young teens, themselves. Above all, EveryBody is about helping adolescents develop the habits of being informed regarding their own health and being responsible for preventing HIV and other STDs. Some adults may feel that EveryBody goes beyond what is expected for a fifth through ninth grade curriculum. However, EveryBody is developmentally appropriate and the research shows that it matches the needs of today's youths. EveryBody targets young teens, many of whom have not initiated risky behaviors, with the objective of providing a prevention paradigm to help students shape their future activities. EveryBody also provides potentially life-saving content for those youth already at risk for HIV and other STDs. Deborah Schoeberlein To read the new Preface order EveryBody
The following resources provide further information about EveryBody and RAD Educational Programs: Schoeberlein, D.R. |
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