September 28th, 2009

Reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The Girlfriends Project has all the ingredients of a Tupperware party: a host invites friends and family to her home, and a professional presents information to the guests.

But guests don’t ask questions about storage containers.

The Girlfriends Project party is an innovative project of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force to educate women about health issues, said Daphne Parker, HIV Prevention Programs coordinator. Party guests learn about HIV, AIDS, domestic violence, and male and female condoms. They receive referrals for counseling and can be tested for HIV for free.

“They don’t have to go outside their comfort zone,” Parker said. “We meet them there.”

The project was in answer to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study six years ago that concluded black women ages 18 to 29 have become the leading group contracting HIV and AIDS, she said.

The concept is getting national attention, after Parker and Girlfriends Project coordinator Lisa Dukes presented it in August at the CDC’s 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.

Find out more at the Tribune-Review.