The WILLOW intervention
is a social-skills building and educational intervention for adult
women living with HIV. It consists of 4 four-hour sessions which are
delivered by two trained adult female facilitators, one of whom is a
woman living with HIV.
The small group sessions consist of 8-10 women
living with HIV and are conducted in a community-based setting. An
adaptation of the SISTA intervention, WILLOW emphasizes gender pride,
informs women how to identify and maintain supportive social networks,
teaches coping strategies to reduce life stressors, enhances awareness
of STD transmission and HIV reinfection risk behaviors, teaches
communication skills for negotiating
safe sex, reinforces proper and consistent condom use, distinguishes
between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and defines types of
abusive relationships and their effect on a woman's ability to
negotiate safer sex practices.
The target population for
WILLOW is heterosexual women, regardless of race or ethnicity, living
with HIV/AIDS who are 18-50 years of age and who have known their HIV
serostatus for at least 6 months.
Research and Development
Wingwood,
G. M., DiClemente, R. J., Mikhail, I., Lang, D. L., Hubbard-McCree, D.,
Davies, S. L., et al. (2004). A randomized controlled trial to reduce
HIV transmission risk behaviors and STDs among women living with HIV:
The WiLLOW program. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 37, S58-S67.
Program Review Panel Information
The
CDC requires all CDC-funded agencies using the WILLOW intervention to
identify, or establish, and utilize a Program Review Panel and complete
Form 0.1113 to document this activity. The intervention researchers and
developers are not involved in this activity. This is a CDC requirement
for their grantees, and all questions in this regard should be directed
to your agency's CDC Project Officer or to the health department
funding your agency's implementation of the intervention.
The Program Review Panel guidelines, instructions for completion of Form 0.113, and the form itself are available under the Related Links section of the this website.
CDC Policy on Youth Peer Outreach Workers
CDC
funded (directly or indirectly) agencies using youth (either paid or
volunteer) in program outreach activities need to use caution and
judgement in the venues/situations where youth workers are placed.
Agencies should give careful consideration to the "age appropriateness"
of the activity or venue. Additionally, agencies should comply with all
relevant laws and regulations regarding entrance into adult
establishments/environments. Laws and curfews should be clearly
outlined in required safety protocols developed and implemented by
agencies directly and indirectly funded by CDC.
If you have specific questions, please contact your CDC project officer.