Currently, half of all new HIV infections strike people under the age of 25 and locally the Southern Tier AIDS Program's (STAP) client caseload is its highest in 19 years. A group of Cornell students, led by College of Human Ecology senior Ed Pettitt, is addressing this problem by conducting multi-part workshops on intergenerational communication and HIV/AIDS awareness in Ithaca and Tompkins County.

With a small but growing group of peers, Pettitt has initiated the newest adaptation of the award-winning "Talking with Kids about HIV/AIDS" of the Cornell HIV/AIDS Parent Education Project, aptly named "Help Understand and Guide Me" (HUG Me). About a dozen Cornell student-volunteer educators are using the curriculum to empower staff at the Tompkins County Youth Bureau and other youth service providers in the county to interact more comfortably and knowledgeably about HIV/AIDS with the young people they serve.

The HUG Me workshops are supported by $1,500 Pettitt received last spring from the prestigious Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award that honors students who have had significant involvement in community service and provides support for community outreach efforts. The project works to support parents, guardians, youth workers and other volunteers who work with youth to provide accurate HIV-related information to children and teens in sensitive, age-appropriate ways. Its goal is to save lives by reducing new HIV infections among young people. The workshops include basic information on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact, skills development in HIV, risk assessment and risk reduction and extensive adult-youth communication activities.

This past summer, the Ithaca Youth Bureau, Catholic Charities, AIDSWork, Planned Parenthood and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County participated in a pilot workshop of the curriculum. Last semester, HUG Me sponsored a public lecture about the global HIV/AIDS crisis featuring Dr. Gilbert Buckle, a medical doctor from Ghana and the student volunteer educators were trained by Jennifer Tiffany, director of the Cornell HIV/AIDS Education Project. This semester, the students are training students and staff in Cornell's Alternative Breaks program (community service trips during Cornell breaks), Cornell Bigs (Big Brothers, Big Sisters Club at Cornell) and the Ithaca Youth Bureau.

"HUG Me educators will fill an important need for HIV awareness by facilitating Talking with Kids about HIV/AIDS workshops for youth service providers, parents/guardians and other college students who offer programs for young people in Ithaca and Tompkins County," said Tiffany. "This is especially important because county and state funding for local HIV prevention education programs has been cut back."

Pettitt says he hopes that students will conduct independent studies through HUG Me, including research and evaluation exploring the development of the project and the dynamics of community-based HIV education. Students also will be able to document the development of this project so that students at other universities can replicate the design.

Pettitt developed the idea for HUG Me while enrolled in the Human Ecology Leadership Initiative (LI), a certificate program begun in 2003 by Brenda Bricker, the director of leadership and undergraduate research in the college. Pettitt is the first student to complete requirements for the Leadership Certificate. The LI program builds on Human Ecology's majors and is available to all students. Beyond their major requirements, certificate students take two leadership classes, complete a significant leadership project and an assistantship in teaching and serve for a year on the board of a community organization. Pettitt is a member of the Ithaca Youth Bureau Advisory Board.