Community-Engaged Use of Cultural Narratives to Create HIV Prevention Stories for African American Women

Background: Culture-specific interventions based on storytelling can address the social and cultural context of HIV that is unique to Southern African American women.

Methods: We describe a community-engaged process to construct scripted stories to promote HIV prevention based on cultural narratives from African American women living with HIV. Our process involved (1) the collection of cultural narratives, (2) establishment of a community advisory board (CAB), (3) identification of important intervention themes, (4) narrative analysis to identify stories, and (5) script writing/peer review to produce composite narrative HIV prevention messages.

Lessons Learned: Engaging community members is a strength; however, outreach should be strategic to individuals interested in a script writing creative process. This process is an adaptation of widely accepted methods to produce stories that incorporate culture organically in ways that allow for greater identification and engagement by the target audience.

Conclusions: Authentic stories harvested and produced from and for a culture-specific population is a critical consideration for narrative health promotion.