Development of an HIV prevention and life skills program for Spanish speaking gay and bisexual newcomers

This paper reports on the creation, implementation, and evaluation of a life skills and HIV prevention program for Spanish-speaking gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) who are within three years of arrival in Canada. The Mano en Mano program consists of an initial day-long session followed by four two-hour evening sessions addressing HIV prevention, social isolation, social service, and migration issues. Evaluation showed a significant shift toward safer sex practice and decreased sense of social isolation as expressed in exit interviews. The Mano en Mano intervention shows movement in the right direction in HIV prevention and sexual health promotion and shows considerable potential to be effective and well liked by participants. Interventions of this type that build social networks and peer bonds in a sexual health context likely have potential to be useful and effective beyond the Latino newcomers who participated in this pilot.