NEWTON, MA | February 3, 2009
Safe in the City, a program designed and evaluated by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for inclusion in The 2008 Compendium of Evidence-based HIV Prevention Interventions.
CDC, the government’s lead agency for HIV prevention in the United States, analyzes program efficacy and compiles updates to the compendium annually. To be included, programs must be scientifically proven to reduce HIV or STD-related risk behaviors, or promote safer behaviors. The compendium is a single source of information that informs state and local HIV prevention programs about what works for preventing infections and includes a total of 57 interventions.
Safe in the City, one of eight interventions added this year, is a program comprised of a video, posters, and user guide to be used in clinic and hospital waiting rooms. The video features a variety of characters modeling positive behaviors, such as talking with a partner about condom use. Animated segments explain different condom types and demonstrate how to correctly use a condom. Research into the video’s effectiveness shows it resulted in a nearly ten percent reduction in new sexually transmitted disease infections among clinic patients who viewed it.
“We’re pleased to have this video intervention endorsed by the CDC,” said EDC’s Athi Myint-U. “The DVD is designed to play in clinic waiting rooms and requires very little staff time. We’ve gotten a very enthusiastic response among clinics and health departments, and that has been very encouraging,” she said.
EDC developed and evaluated the program with partners at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Denver Public Health, California State University at Long Beach, and the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information or to order the DVD, go to www.safeinthecity.org.
##
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is a global nonprofit organization that develops, delivers, and evaluates innovative programs to address some of the world's most urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development. EDC manages more than 300 projects in 35 countries.
http://www.edc.org
