Project IFE was developed through Project ISIS, which was a women's study in Eastern cities of the United States to see how many women get infected with HIV in one year. The purpose of Project IFE is, using a community approach, to adapt a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention- supported intervention known as the Real AIDS Prevention Project (RAPP) and to design a plan for long-term HIV prevention among African American women in Durham Housing Authority communities. Project IFE is a collaboration between UNC, the Center for Accessible Affordable Health, Research, and Education (CAARE), and the Durham Housing Authority (DHA). The CAARE staff participate in research activities and provide their perspectives on the community and program. The DHA identify and recruit resident study participants as well as directly participate in individual interviews and the design of RAPP. The aims of Project IFE are to:
1) Engage a broad range of the community to participate in the design of study methods and changes of RAPP for women living in public housing in the southern US.
2) Understand community resources, needs, priorities, and obstacles to carrying out HIV prevention programs, particularly RAPP, among DHA residents and DHA and CAARE staff.
3) Create and test for ease and acceptability of a program plan for carrying out RAPP within Durham Housing Authority developments. Project IFE is highly important to public health because it will help further understanding of how to carry out high-quality HIV prevention programs in vulnerable communities.
