3 Community-led Services
Training community outreach workers Training should take place regularly and may be done at several levels: 1. basic training at the beginning of engagement in the programme 2. advanced training sessions at least quarterly to build knowledge and skills 3. informal mentoring by an outreach supervisor / manager to support community outreach workers
( daily) 4. group discussions and mentoring with community outreach workers( weekly).
Training curricula should be interactive. The strength of community outreach workers in bringing their own experience and initiative to their work should be emphasized. This means that training may be most effective when facilitated by trainers who are themselves sex workers.( Trainers should be remunerated.)
Basic training may include:
• interpersonal communication skills to build confidence and individual agency( the choice, control and power to act for oneself), including discussion of the need to be tactful and non-judgemental, and to ensure confidentiality as a professional requirement
• condom gap analysis( to identify gap between demand and supply), condom negotiation and distribution rationale
• social network mapping
• managing prevention and care, micro-planning tools, record-keeping
• STI symptoms and disease processes, referrals and treatment of STIs, HIV, AIDS and TB
• promotion of voluntary HTC
• identifying and discussing violence, providing psychosocial support
• community mobilization.
Advanced training may include:
• advanced communication and counselling skills
• leadership skills
• dealing with stigma, discrimination and harassment
• legal literacy, negotiating with police and calling upon the community for support
• violence and crisis intervention
• counselling for drug and alcohol abuse
• creating links to other services( e. g. reproductive health)
• care and support for HIV-positive people
• interacting with the media( to promote a positive image of the community).
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