But Bob Hays, CAPS researcher, begins to notice anecdotal reports that young gay men are still engaging in risky behaviors. Bob approaches Susan Kegeles, another CAPS researcher, and they call the National Institute of Mental Health to see if they would fund a study. Bob and Susan then set out to develop and test an intervention for young gay men. Thus was born the MPowerment Project, a community-level intervention to reduce HIV risk among young gay men. The MPowerment Project works by promoting a norm of safer sex among young gay and bisexual men through a variety of social, outreach and small group activities designed and run by young men themselves.
Peers can have a great deal of power to influence their contemporaries.
Social change occurs when innovative practices are adopted by a critical mass. Growth of the Program Since 1990, Bob and Susan have set up interventions in six cities in California, Oregon, Texas and New Mexico. They started in the three cities in which they had conducted the surveys. They chose smaller communities because these communities often had no resources or programs in place for gay men. They also chose college towns, to make sure there'd be lots of young gay men around.