PEER/Opinion Leader Training Using innovative methods developed by the Center for AIDS Intervention Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, MAPP trains popular teens to serve as endorsers of HIV risk reduction to their friends. Sociologists theorize that there is a group of people in any cohesive social network who are opinion leaders, whose beliefs, practices and behaviors and noticed and emulated by others. If these opinion leaders are observed by others to adopt an innovation that seems valued, it can spread through the population. Once trained, the opinion leaders chosen for this project help promote a new "social norm" (the behavior that is expected and accepted within a social network) of risk avoidance in their communities. When risk reduction is widely considered among one's own friends to be the right way to act, it is easier for people to take steps to reduce HIV risk and sustain those changes. Peer/Opinion Leader Training's are available for students at middle/junior and high schools and for teens at community centers. School administrators, or organization staff, choose teens who are popular and influential to participate in the project. Participants learn basic information about HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases, substance abuse, ways to assess risk, practical strategies for changing risky behavior, methods of communicating information to peers, and a list of local resources appropriate for young people. To set up training or to get more information for your school or organization, please call (248) 545-1435 or 1-800-627-7769.

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