In 1999, the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture, Inc. was awarded grant support for "The Integrated HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Project" by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Project Objective:
The Integrated HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Prevention Project for African American Women (termed "Healer Women Fighting Disease") is a unique behavioral change prevention and intervention plan that is based on the cognitive restructuring, cultural realignment and character development of Black women. HIV/AIDS prevention/intervention requires a radical and permanent shift in the way the target population thinks and feels about their own meaning. The shift from at-risk behavior to health promotion behavior is accomplished by the techniques of cognitive restructuring and character development. Through a process of cultural immersion the strategy is to reconfigure the way women think about health and well-being and enhance the development of protective factors that would make women less likely to engage in risk-taking behavior that exposes them to the risk of being infected with HIV.

Project Theory:
The theoretical underpinnings of the project are centered around the African Centered Behavioral Change Model of Prevention for HIV. It is a fundamental notion that ideas are the substance of behaviors and that everything that we do (our behavior) is the result of the choices we make and the chances we take. The choices we make and the chances we take are based essentially on what it means to be a human being. The meaning of the person is ultimately determined by the cultural orientation of the person. Given the historical experience of Africans in America, African culture has been devalued and seen as a source of ridicule and/or contempt. Accordingly, many African Americans have become culturally misaligned, i.e., they have adopted a cultural orientation that, in many instances, is inconsistent with their fundamental nature of being. The African Centered Behavioral Change Model is based on the principle of reinstilling traditional African and African American cultural values into the population.

Expected Outcomes:
1. An increase in knowledge about the cause, transmission, progression and prevention of HIV/STDs among African American women.
2. Increase in knowledge about behaviors that place people at risk of HIV/STDs among participants.
3. Reduction in HIV/STD risk-taking behaviors.
4. Decrease in the incidence and level of substance use among participants.
5. Change in positive attitude towards substance use among participants.
6. Restructuring of the meaning and character of what it means to be a woman.
7. Positive changes in the behavioral and attitudinal indicators of the character of Black females.