SIHLE Workshop Overview

Sisters Informing, Healing, Living and Empowering (SIHLE) is an evidence-based, gender-specific, peer-led, social-skills training intervention aimed at reducing HIV sexual risk behaviors among African American girls, ages 14 to 18. The SIHLE intervention will be enhanced by on-site confidential rapid HIV counseling, testing, and referrals (CTR) services conducted by the Women’s Anonymous Test Site (WATS), a program of the Health Federation of Philadelphia.

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Project Effectiveness The SIHLE intervention was first implemented and evaluated at a health department in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1995. Results indicated that African American girls, ages 14-18, who participated in the intervention in a community-based setting reduced their number of sexual partners, increased their use of condoms, and had fewer pregnancies and cases of Chlamydia than those in the control group. In conclusion, culturally-relevant, gender-tailored interventions for African American adolescent girls can enhance HIV-preventive behaviors, skills, and mediators.

1DiClemente, R., Wingood, G., Harrington, K., Lang, D., Davies, S., Hook III, E., et al. (2004). Efficacy of an HIV Prevention Intervention for African American Adolescent Girls: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 292(2), 171-179.

The Philadelphia SIHLE Project is a program of the Public Health Management Corporation and is supported with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



How Does SIHLE Work?

SIHLE consists of four vibrant, interactive three-hour sessions delivered by two Near-Peer Facilitators (young African American women, ages 18 to 22) and one adult female Lead Facilitator. Conducted in community-based settings, SIHLE sessions are gender-specific, culturally relevant and designed for small groups of 10 to 12 youth. Individual sessions include behavioral skills practice, group discussions, lectures, role-playing, and take-home exercises to develop girls’ capacity to practice consistent safer sex behaviors..

The Sessions

·         DAY 1: “MY SISTA, MY GIRLS”
·         In this introductory session, all project participants will have the opportunity to meet each other and explore issues related to self-love and ethnic pride.

·         DAY 2: “MY BODY”
·         Girls will learn basic information about STI/HIV prevention, transmission and infection, and how they relate to sexual risk behaviors.

·         DAY 3: “TALK TO ME”
·         Girls will learn how to express their entitlement to safer sex practices, negotiate abstinence if desired, and demonstrate care for their partners.

·         DAY 4: “POWER FULL”
·         Girls will explore ideas about power and gender will explore the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships.  At the conclusion of this session the girls will receive HIV counseling, testing and referral services.