Lessons Learned From a Community–University Partnership to Increase HIV Testing Services for Emerging Adults at a Minority-Serving Institution

Abstract

The success and advancement of HIV prevention efforts with emerging adults from minority communities requires continued and diligent collaboration between researchers, community members, and community-based organizations. This paper provides an overview of a 3-year collaboration between a Minority Serving Institution of Higher Education, and a grassroots, minority servicing HIV prevention agency. In South Florida, a geographic area with high incidence of HIV, we relied on community-based participatory research (CBPR) to guide the implementation of culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate HIV prevention programming for 18 to 24-year-old Latinx university students. The project partnership was organized around: (a) integrating community knowledge through formative research to understand needs and determine relevant risk factors, (b) building a highly collaborative relationship between a large academic institution and community-based service provider, and (c) designing and implementing ongoing, strategic environmental prevention activities through community-involved research. We describe the collaborative partnership and multiple prevention strategies that were implemented. The success of the community–university partnership was highly dependent on the depth and breadth of collaboration, mutual support, and respect among collaborators. To advance sexual health promotion programs designed for Latinx emerging adults, we describe lessons learned for future CBPR implementation that focus on involving members of priority populations in research teams, aligning project voices, navigating internal governmental systems, creating mutual and direct benefits of partnership, and utilizing networks to enhance sustainability.