Organization Presentation and Summary
The consequences of the AIDS and HIV epidemic that peaked in the eighties can be observed even today. The disease is one of the leading causes of death globally (Piot et al., 2015). For years, the epidemic has unsettled communities, families, and relationships. The disease has orphaned millions of children and disrupted public health (Piot et al., 2015). Sex education and sexual health activism play an essential role in alleviating the epidemic’s consequences. Moreover, they are indispensable in building awareness around such poignant concepts as gender, sexuality, and consent. LIFEbeat is a sex positivity and LGBTQ organization striving to promote sexual health with the assistance of the country’s music and entertainment industries. Numerous music industry representatives became victims of the epidemic; yet, the sector remained silent for years until 1992, based on Bob Caviano’s and several other high-ranking executives initiative, LIFEbeat was founded. Hence, the organization became a prominent advocate for implementing preventive interventions and sexual health promotion.
LIFEbeat acknowledges the significance of music in young people’s lives, especially music-related events, and uses its power for communal benefit. LIFEbeat’s target group is at-risk young people, primarily those under 29. The organization engages the youth in conversations about safe sexual practices and services to which they can resort irrespective of their socioeconomic status, sexuality, or gender. In addition to direct discussions and support, it distributes safe sex kits. LIFEbeat operates at large festivals and tours as well as national partner’s community centers – it collaborates with LGBTQ community centers and AIDS prevention organizations all over the country. The preventive interventions in the form of talks are supposed to help young people resist negative influences, the urge, and potential pressure to participate in risky behaviors. “Touring, Talking, and Taking Action” is the slogan that serves as the basis for LIFEbeat’s actions and organizational ideology.
For almost three decades, this sexual health organization cooperated with a variety of community centers and services to execute potentially life-saving preventive measures among LGBTQ and other at-risk music fans. Yet, LIFEbeat considerably relies on volunteering, particularly for fieldwork at large festivals and music events. The organization seems to experience troubles in volunteer recruitment. The challenge prevents the organization from effectively completing its primary mission – sexual education and HIV prevention.
Dynamics and Factors in Resolving the Challenge
The HIV epidemic disproportionately impacts the LGBTQ community. The same population group is the primary target of oppression, discrimination, and violence. These dynamics significantly complicate the mitigation of the public health problem in question. Although overall public acceptance of sexual minorities seems to grow gradually, violence and discrimination are not eradicated and continue to threaten lives and decrease life quality of the LGBTQ population. The notion results that members of the community can be more prone to non-disclosure of identity. According to Abaver and Cishe (2018), “non-disclosure of identity by individuals of this group [LGBTQ] denies members the opportunity of accessing specific health care needs to be tailored at the prevention and control of STIs, such as HIV/AIDS” (p. 70). This external to organization factor potentially impedes LIFEbeat’s staff and volunteers from reaching potential service users and members of the at-risk population group.
An internal factor that could complicate the resolution of the problem that LIFEbeat undertook is the number of its members. Although the organization has both dedicated staff and volunteers, their number might not be sufficient for extensive preventive work. The organization’s site indicates that LIFEbeat primarily relies on the work of a small team. Since the organization operates countrywide and provides educational consulting via social media as well as in person, it could potentially benefit from a more extensive staff that would enhance its outreach capacities.
Social Workers as Agents of Change
As an agent of change, a social worker performs several essential functions. They can alleviate the transition, help manage issues that arise from the change, and also be its catalyst. In HIV prevention, social workers’ primary responsibility is to discourage at-risk individuals from engaging in high-risk behaviors and increase HIV awareness. Regarding LIFEbeat’s organizational activity, social workers could accelerate and facilitate the change. Outreach workers have an especially significant role in awareness-raising and educating at-risk individuals about safety, prevention, and treatment options. Specifically, such professionals could help to train new volunteers that LIFEbeat involves in preventive work. The collaboration between social workers and volunteers is beneficial in several ways: participants could obtain supplementary knowledge regarding safe-sex practices and awareness, master their communicative skills, and enhance cultural sensitivity when dealing with minorities. Furthermore, multidisciplinary teams, including social workers, volunteers, and LIFEbeat staff, could help maximize the results of preventive work. Generally, cooperation between the organization and social workers could alleviate the staff problem and increase preventative work efficiency.
LIFEbeat appears to be moderately ready to reconsider its approach to staffing. Organizational readiness for change varies on several internal factors, such as its members’ attitudes, availability of resources, and demand (Nilsen & Birken, 2020). The attitude of LIFEbeat’s members to change is challenging to determine without direct communication. Nonetheless, the fact that the organization has numerous partners countrywide suggests that it might be open to further cooperation. Regarding demand, HIV/AIDS remains a grave public health issue among the LGBTQ population, even in developed countries, warranting the need for LIFEbeat’s service. Additionally, the popularity of volunteering is thought to be continuously increasing, particularly for large events – LIFEbeat’s principal field of operation (Vidishcheva & Gunare, 2018). The tendency mitigates the organization’s need for human resources and serves as a support for implementing this developmental change. However, the current situation in the healthcare industry presents the principal barrier to extending staff.
Alternative Change Interventions
Coaching is the first possible intervention aimed to prepare volunteers for fieldwork. One of the issues from which numerous NGOs suffer is the lack of evidence-based practice, potentially damaging service users (Bach-Mortensen et al., 2018). Coaching provided by social workers could help to prevent the problem in LIFEbeat. The intervention gives an opportunity for distributing organizational news, professional knowledge, and any other information that could be impactful for volunteer service. Coaching sessions could also help to increase volunteer retention. The second alternative is performance evaluation effectuated by a social worker. The intervention would allow for determining the positive sides of the organization’s preventive work and identify the areas for improvement. Performance evaluation conducted by a professional could serve as the foundation for enhanced performance. Mentoring is another alternative in which, unlike coaching, a social worker would have only one mentee. In this way, volunteers would obtain an opportunity to enhance their knowledge and communication skills, learning from professionals in the field personally. Additionally, mentoring could take place during fieldwork, for instance at festivals, so that volunteers could master their skills while practicing and correcting their mistakes at the same time.
The third alternative could be the optimal choice. The ultimate goal of all three change interventions is to resolve LIFEbeat’s recruitment challenge to enhance HIV prevention work. Creating a mentorship program for volunteers adheres to the principles of social, environmental, and economic justice. From the perspective of social justice, the mentorship program could enhance the quality of services that the organization provides to at-risk groups, such as LGBTQ youth. From the standpoint of economic justice, the program, to an extent, mitigates the consequences of socioeconomic disparities that the at-risk population faces. Regarding environmental justice, the program would involve individuals regardless of their ethnicity, income, gender, age, et cetera.
Evaluation Strategy to Assess the Effectiveness of the
Intervention
The proposed evaluation strategy is composed of quantitative and qualitative estimates. First of all, the intervention’s effectiveness is reflected in the volunteer’s retention rate, which ideally should be around 70%. The percentage demonstrates volunteers’ satisfaction with their experience and ensures that LIFEbeat has a reserve of human resources to be engaged in their future activities – fieldwork at large music events and online consulting. In order to collect qualitative results, a survey with closed-ended and open-ended questions should be distributed among the volunteers at the end of the program. The survey is supposed to provide feedback and demonstrate the highlights and downsides of volunteers’ experience to be taken into account for future mentoring. Additionally, some of the volunteers could be interviewed to complement the survey’s results and establish overall impressions. Hence, the proposed evaluation strategy aims to measure volunteers’ satisfaction and retention to determine the intervention’s effectiveness.
References
Abaver, D. T., & Cishe, E. N. (2018). Violence, abuse and discrimination: Key factors militating against control of HIV/AIDS among the LGBTI sector. SAHARA-J: Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, 15(1), 60–70.
Nilsen, P., & Birken, S. A. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook on implementation science. Edward Elgar.
Piot, P., Abdool Karim, S. S., Hecht, R., Legido-Quigley, H., Buse, K., Stover, J., … Sidibé, M. (2015). Defeating AIDS—advancing global health. The Lancet, 386(9989), 171–218.
Vidishcheva, E., & Gunare, M. (2018). The impact of volunteering in the economy of mega-events. European journal of economic studies, 7(2), 126-131.
Bach-Mortensen, A. M., Lange, B. C. L., & Montgomery, P. (2018). Barriers and facilitators to implementing evidence-based interventions among third sector organisations: a systematic review. Implementation Science, 13(1).