The long-term goal of the Tony Cox Community Fund is to facilitate an AIDS Service Organization with the resources in order to establish a long standing relationship with their local cable network, in order to partner a continuous joint effort in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This marriage of HIV prevention and media collaboration can be seen in the work done by The Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) in
In 2006, CFAR staff and interns developed a campaign to encourage young adults to develop positive HIV/AIDS prevention strategies by emphasizing the importance of knowing one’s status, entitled “The Join Those Who Know, Get Tested.” With support and funds from Cable Positive, CFAR was able to design a campaign to encourage the youth of
The grassroots outreach for the campaign started as an anonymous campaign logo displayed on flyers and stickers posted throughout the city (by outreach volunteers) in venues such as: local universities, coffee shops, gyms, grocery stores, etc.; two weeks before the airing of the public service announcements, the logos were updated with the Join Those Who Know, Get Tested slogan, in addition to the campaigns’ website address and toll free phone number in order to schedule an HIV test. Media venue and HIV prevention collaboration was further strengthened when CFAR partnered with the National Cinemedia in order to have the PSA played in all the mainstream movie theaters in the Philadelphia County area, before every showing of every movie, from June 16th, 2006 to June 27th, 2006.
The combination of good production, ingenious marketing, strong collaborations, and a passion to get the message of HIV prevention and testing across in a new and fresh way paved the road for CFAR to obtain results at many different levels. Comcast was originally slated to provide $10,000 work of in-kind media donation and ended up providing over $53,000 work of media value support. The number of hits to the CFAR website markedly increased in the months following the PSA campaign, showing an increase in the community’s awareness of the agency. Lastly, the Join Those Who Know, Get Tested PSA and grassroots was adopted up by Philadelphia Fight’s as their official National HIV Testing Day campaign for 2007. The multi-tiered and innovative approach to HIV prevention, testing, and outreach, coupled with start up funds from Cable Positive’s Tony Cox Community Fund, and truly stellar support from Comcast, allowed for a strong and lasting marriage between HIV prevention and media promotion.
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Congratulations on the success of this endeavor. I would like to encourage people to also consider helping people living in the U.S. affiliated Pacific region--American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam--which suffers enormous health disparities due in part to limited Federal assistance, and in part due to the post-colonial era per capita income: for example, it is only $2,900 in the Marshall Islands, and $2,300 in the Federated States of Micronesia. For comparison, the U.S. per capita income is $46,000. Even a small donation to the GUAHAN Project (http://www.guahanproject.org/index.php)--the regional AIDS service organization--can make a huge difference in stemming the tide of HIV in these small, culturally rich enclaves that could be destroyed by HIV/AIDS.
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