To hang in the 'hood: description and analysis of outreach activities

The unique, influential, and successful characteristics of outreach as a risk behavior reduction intervention among active drug users is examined. The history of outreach is posited as a delineation of roles, and the outreach process as one of communication and role enactment. The premise is that the outreach worker's juxtaposition of multiple communicative roles facilitates success with HIV outreach interventions. The word "outreach" implies a desired object that eludes one's ready grasp. In the attempt to educate the active drug user about HIV risk behavior, it is the addict that often eludes the educator's ready grasp; a small dilemma for the creative outreach worker. An ethnographic description is provided of four different outreach workers' abilities to penetrate social networks, locate and recruit hidden populations, contextualize client behavior, respond to client needs, and build trust necessary to engage them in risk reduction interventions, while still adhering to program recruitment guidelines. Investigative, study, and outreach limitations are discussed.