Prevention

Outreach with

Women

Empowering

Risk

Reduction

POWERR is an innovative program developed by WORLD for girls that is community-driven, peer-led, and evidence-based.  Based on principles of gender empowerment and social network theories, the POWERR project relies upon the three key factors of participation, control, and critical awareness to engage girls and promote the possibility of taking control of and changing one’s life and relationships. POWERR seeks to increase participants’ personal sense of empowerment, sexual health knowledge, and understanding of positive social networks, and reduce sexual risk taking.

The POWERR project is a seven-part workshop series that empowers young women of color to protect themselves from HIV and other STDs.  The curriculum uses creative activities to explore the social and political context of girls lives, particularly with respect to gender roles, communication, and vision for the future– and how these play out in our sexual and intimate relationships.

POWERR also emphasizes communication and negotiation skills as tools for increased self-efficacy. POWERR is designed for implementation in an urban setting, with 14-19 year old African-American girls.  It has been implemented in 5 charter high schools and 2 community based organizations in Oakland and Alameda, CA.

Data from two years of the POWERR project indicate success in achieving many of the goals of increasing participants’ personal sense of empowerment, sexual health knowledge, and understanding of positive social networks, while reducing sexual risk taking.  Following participation in the POWERR workshop series, 20% more girls report always using condoms for vaginal sex than before engaging in the program.

Nearly all of the participants in POWERR can identify at least one thing that they have learned, one behavior that they have changed, and one possibility that they see for their futures.

Many girls reflected upon the raised consciousness around their relationships with girls/women and how they had been competitive prior to their participation in POWERR, but reconsidered the dynamics of women-to-women relationships and the power that can be drawn from them.

To learn more about POWERR and/or how to bring this “POWERRful” program to your school or organization, contact WORLD’s Youth Outreach & Prevention Educator @ 510.986.0340 x 317.  Or email: rhanna-ware@womenhiv.org.