Sisters Informing Sisters About Topics on AIDS (SISTA) Women of color need to have the opportunity to discuss HIV/AIDS openly or they will not get the information and support needed to protect themselves and their partners from HIV. Program Objectives Increase HIV/AIDS risk reduction knowledge Strengthen communication and sexual assertiveness skills. Increase consistent condom use among women and their partners.

SISTA provides a series of one to two hour peer-led community-based group sessions. Participants engage in gender-specific and culturally sensitive discussions aimed at reducing HIV risk behavior. We also discuss assertiveness training to assist women to negotiate safer sex and make it completely normal to use condoms. We also teach coping and communication skills through role playing, poems, videos and take-home exercises.

Did You Know?

For every 1 white woman that is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, there are 21 black and Hispanic women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS?
(Source: CDC Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Diagnosis 2001-2004, MMWR 2006)

52.5% of people living with AIDS in Westchester County are black, even though they make up only 14% of its population.
(Source: Westchester County Dept. of Health)

Heterosexual contact among women is the leading cause for HIV infection, followed by injection drug use.
(Source: CDC Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Diagnosis 2001-2004, MMWR 2006)

Women often defer their needs to those of their children or significant others. The large majority of women studied were likely to secure medical care for their infants, but only 46% reported ever seeking HIV-related health care for themselves.
(Source: Butz AM. HIV-infected Women and Infants: Social and Health Factors Impeding Utilization of Health Care. Nurse Midwifery, 38:103-109, 1993.)

For more information or to schedule a SISTA group in your neighborhood, contact our SISTA Educator at (914) 785-8319 or contact our Hawthorne office.