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On December 1, The Institute for Community Research and AIDS Project Hartford will commemorate World AIDS Day with the opening reception for 'Connected Threads,' an interactive community arts installation located in ICR’s Jean J. Schensul Community Gallery, 146 Wyllys St., Hartford. The exhibition will feature quilt squares, memory dolls, and wall hangings created by community members, and an AIDS altar displaying donated photos, written messages and mementos. The opening reception will take place from 1:30 to 3:30 pm with guest speaker Shawn Lang, Director of Public Policy of the CT AIDS Resource Coalition, and will include music and spoken word performances. The event is free and open to the public.

Hmong embroiderers, Burmese weavers, a Liberian tailor, a Lithuanian book illustrator, and a Somali basket weaver are just a few of the artists who will demonstrate their arts and sell their work at a traditional artists' marketplace on Saturday, November 8, 2008 from 11 am to 5 pm at The Institute for Community Research (ICR), 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100 in Hartford, CT. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also include rug weavers, crochet artists, and jewelry makers, representing recent immigrant and refugee groups from across Southern New England. Organized by ICR's CT Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP), the marketplace is part of Hartford Open Studios Weekend, a creative showcase for local artists held annually in Hartford.

The Institute for Community Research has a 12-month full-time or part-time opening for an Ethnographer/Research Associate at the MA/MS level to participate in a three year NIDA funded study of youth party and social activity situations, drug use including Ecstasy and intimate relationships and practices. The position involves field ethnography and in-depth interviews with MDMA using polydrug using young men on their relationships, sexual activity and substance use.

An opening reception for 'Ancestors: Day of the Dead Celebration,' a multi-media exhibit featuring ten New England artists will be held on Friday, October 24 from 5 to 8 pm at The Jean J. Schensul Community Gallery at The Institute for Community Research. The gallery is located at 2 Hartford Square West, Ste. 100 (146 Wyllys Street), in Hartford, CT. The exhibit, which is curated by Guatemalan artist Balam Soto, runs through November 21, 2008. Gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays, during special weekend events, or by appointment. The exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public.

The Southern New England Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is seeking master traditional artists in Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts who want to teach their art form to an apprentice from their community in one of the other states. Now in its 11th year, the program is designed to foster the sharing of traditional (folk) artistic skills and cultural knowledge through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a master artist to a student/apprentice. Completed applications are due October 13, 2008. ICR's Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program manages this program for traditional artists in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The program is a collaboration among the three statewide folk arts programs in Southern New England, located at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in Providence, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council in Boston. Primary funding for the Program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, along with the Program partners. For more information, call Lynne Williamson at 860-278-2044, ext. 251 or email her at Lynne.Williamson@icrweb.org.

ICR Studies Women's Reproductive Health Risk in Mumbai, India
ICR is part of a team of researchers from the United States and India awarded a five year grant to reduce women's risk of HIV by focusing on culturally specific OB/GYN problems, and intervening at the individual, group, couple and community levels. ICR's contributions to the RISHTA Women's Project include conceptual guidance and research design, ethnographic data monitoring, staff training and data analysis. The grant, awarded to the University of Connecticut Health Center (Stephen Schensul, Ph.D., PI) includes, in addition to ICR (J. Schensul, Ph.D. co-PI), the International Center for Research on Women (Ravi Verma, Ph.D. PI); Tulane University (Bonnie Nastasi, co-PI); The TATA Institute for Social Sciences (Shubhada Maitra); T.N. Medical College, Mumbai (Radha Aras, M.D.); and CORO, Mumbai (Sujata Khandekar). The grant is funded by NIMH.

ICR received a three year grant to study the complex interactions between MDMA, a mood and sensuality enhancing drug, and sexuality and unprotected sex in urban, college and suburban populations. The first year of the study concentrated on cultural scripts relating MDMA and sexuality. The second year of the study which has just started, is focusing on people’s stories of their experiences with MDMA and sex. The study will be recruiting people who have used ecstasy in the past several months, and are sexually active, from the greater Hartford, Willimantic, Springfield, Waterbury and New Haven areas and from local area community, four year and graduate campuses. For more information or to become a paid volunteer for the study, please contact Elsie Vazquez at 860-278-2044, 284, Stephen Pavey at 278-2044, ext. 291, or Chavon Hamilton at 278-2044 ext.The study currently has several part time transcription, recording and outreach positions. For information on these positions, please contact Emily Marble at Emily.marble@icrweb.org; or 278-2044, ext. 231 after August 24.Link to MySpace

Updated Ethnographer's Toolkit Available Soon
The second edition of the Ethnographer's Toolkit, a complete guide to community- based ethnographic research for academic, community and health and educational researchers, will be available starting in 2009. In addition to applied ethnography and ethnographic research ethics, the second edition will include new research methods such as photovoice and team ethnography and new approaches to research ethics, collaboration and data analysis and use. Books 1, 3 and 5 will be available in early 2009; books 2 (on research design and theoretical development), 4 (an edited volume on advanced data collection methods), 6 (on ethics of ethnographic research) and 7 (on applications of ethnographic research) will be available in 2009-2010. For more information, contact authors/editors Jean.schensul@icrweb.org; and Margaret.lecompte@colorado.edu.

ICR, the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, and the International Center for Research on Women, India, have been awarded a conference grant to address accelerating rates of alcohol consumption and promotion in India. Alcohol acts as a disinhibitor, and as an agent that focuses attention on sexuality. Increases in consumption among men are generally associated with increases in sexual activity, partners, and at times, unprotected sex. The grant from the National Institute for Alcohol and Addiction (NIAAA) will support two conferences in India, one in 2009 and the second in 2010. The first conference, to be held in Goa in the first week of August in 2009, will disseminate information collected by Indian, and India-US partnerships that links alcohol consumption to beliefs and attitudes about sex, and unprotected sex. The second conference, to be held in Delhi environs, will focus on India-based interventions designed to reduce risk associated with alcohol use and unprotected sex in adults of all ages. Keynote speakers in the first conference include alcohol and HIV researchers Jean J. Schensul, S.K. Singh, Ravi Verma. Niranjan Suggarti, Tom Greenfield, Madhabika Nayak, Ellen Cromley, and Jayanta Basu. Researchers in the U.S. and India are invited to submit proposals for poster sessions and presentations. Registration fees and residence/hotel expenses will be at cost to accommodate U.S. and Indian researchers who are supported on grants or other funds. Some scholarships for Indian pre and post doctoral students will be available. Other partners in this conference include India's National Institute for Medical Statistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the International Center for Research on Women and the Center International Community Health Studies (CICHS), University of Connecticut. For more information on the conference in Goa, please contact Jean.Schensul@icrweb.org or Sksingh1992@yahoo.co.in; and for information on the conference in Delhi region, please contact Jean.Schensul@icrweb.org or rverma@icrw.org.

Bosnian weavers and needleworkers, Somali basketmakers, Assyrian lacemakers, and a Liberian tailor will showcase their beautiful traditional textile crafts at an Open House on Saturday August 23, 2008 from 1 to 4 pm at The Institute for Community Research (ICR), 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100 (146 Wyllys Street) in Hartford, CT. The event celebrates a year-long project that brings together members of recent immigrant and refugee groups to produce and share their traditional art forms. Participants in the project will welcome the public with food, music, and information from their cultures, and they will have art works for sale. The event is free.

Researchers Jean Schensul and Jianghong Li presented posters at the 2008 Conference of the Society for Prevention Research in San Francisco, CA. in May. Dr. Schensul and colleagues Diamond, Vazquez, Pavey, Coman and Hamilton presented a poster on the history of Ecstasy and its use in Connecticut in the opening session of the conference. The poster event was sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Li and colleagues presented a poster comparing injection drug use risk between U.S. and Chinese drug users.

This summer Drs. Kamla Gupta and S.K. Singh, India Investigators on the NIAAA funded study of alcohol use and HIV risk in slum communities in Mumbai, and senior faculty from the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, met with ICR staff in Hartford, CT. The group completed a report on the ICR/IIPS joint study on Alcohol and HIV (ASHRA) and worked on papers for a special journal issue focusing on alcohol and HIV risk in India. The special issue will be edited by Drs. Gupta, Singh, Schensul of ICR and Kendall Bryant of NIAAA, and will be highlighted at a conference on the topic in 2010. Dr. Gupta is the India national coordinator of the National Family Health Survey, a nation-wide survey of the reproductive health status of Indian women and families which for the first time has assessed HIV prevalence in India, and contributed to the revision of HIV estimates in India. Dr. Singh is a statistician involved in evaluation of HIV interventions in India and a coordinator of NFHS. Dr. Singh coordinated the ASHRA study team at IIPS.

Youth Researchers Presented Their Findings on Personal and Group Abuse in the Lives of Hartford Teens

This summer fifteen year-old Magdalyn Roldan and twenty-nine other Hartford youth researchers explored the causes and affects of teen personal and group abuse with hopes to educate other teens and the community at large. The youth researchers, who worked for ICR's Summer Youth Research Institute, presented their findings to the community on Friday August 8, 2008. The event was the culmination of the youth-driven participatory action research project and took place at the Institute.

This summer, young people from around Connecticut are participating in focus groups to evaluate Xperience, a 3-year CDC-funded research project that supports Connecticut youth between ages 14 and 20 in their decision not to use drugs. Based in the Greater Hartford area, Xperience has been working with area youth to create alternative drug-free entertainment events and to produce professionally recorded and mastered CDs that feature young local artists who promote drug-free lifestyles through performing and visual arts. As part of the evaluation, young people listen to the Xperience Vol. 2 CD; complete an anonymous survey about the CD and their thoughts, attitudes and experiences with alcohol and drugs; and participate in a focus group discussion about the CD – the music, lyrics and drug prevention messages. The survey and focus group findings will help project staff evaluate the risk avoidance/abstinence messages that have been developed by youth in the Xperience project and to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness as a drug prevention intervention.

The "Xperience: Vol. III" CD Release Show was a great success, drawing more than 165 people on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at the Charter Oak Cultural Center. The show featured rappers, singers, and poets, as well as the work of young visual artists. Show participants had been preparing for this event as well as the release of their new CD since January. Their original works of art, conveying drug prevention messages, were well received by the community who attended the concert in support of drug-free entertainment for youth in the Hartford area. Audience members received a free copy of the "Xperience: Vol. III" CD at the end of the show.

An educational and cultural bus tour will explore the traditions and architecture of Cape Verdeans in southeastern Connecticut. Guided by Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP) Director Lynne Williamson, tour participants will travel to Norwich to view stone walls created by generations of Cape Verdean masons. The group will also visit the reconstructed chapel of St. Anthony in the meditation area of St. Mary's Church, and have the opportunity to attend St. Anthony's Feast Day Mass with the Cape Verdean Choir from Roxbury, Massachusetts followed by a festival dinner featuring Cape Verdean food and music. The tour bus will depart from Manchester Community College's Parking Lot C on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at noon, and will return to MCC by 8:30 pm. The fee for the tour, which includes transportation, food, and entertainment, is $75. Advanced registration is required; please call Manchester Community College Continuing Education at 860-512-3232 or 860-512-2800 to register.

'Race: The Lived Experience' - A Multi-Media Mural Exhibit and Workshop by Hartford Youth Researchers

High school youth action researchers from The Institute for Community Research, working with artists Victor Pacheco and Luella Pavey, and staff from the Youth Action Research Institute have created a mobile mural on racism. The mural reflects findings from research that 30 Hartford teens conducted with their peers and adults during ICR’s 2007 Summer Youth Research Institute. Using interview, survey, and visual research methods, the youth researchers studied how racism experienced by Hartford teens is a function of attitudes and behaviors of adults and youth, the educational system and the media. They surveyed 133 youth, conducted interviews with 16 adults and youth,and produced a documentary, Docin’ Da Beat, through which they deepened their own critical consciousness while exploring predictors of racism and how they manifest in everyday life. The mural and related programming will be presented at four venues through Connecticut during April and May.

A remarkable exhibit of photographs and Cape Verdean stonemasonry will be on view at the Jean J. Schensul Community Gallery at The Institute for Community Research from April 4 to June 14, 2008. The exhibit opening will take place on Friday, April 4 from 5 to 8 pm, and will include a presentation on Cape Verdean history, language, and dance by students from Norwich Free Academy; a wine tasting offered by a Cape Verdean vintner; and Cape Verdean food. The gallery is located at 2 Hartford Square West, Ste. 100 (146 Wyllys Street), in Hartford, CT; gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays or by appointment.

A lively, educational bus tour will celebrate one of Connecticut’s signature resources – maple syrup – and its roots in French Canadian culture. Guided by Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP) Director Lynne Williamson, tour participants will visit the 18th Annual Maple Festival in Hebron to learn about the production of maple syrup and then travel to East Hartford for a traditional French-Canadian soirée. The tour is a collaboration between CHAP, a program of The Institute for Community Research (ICR), and Manchester Community College. The tour bus will depart from Manchester Community College’s Parking Lot C on Saturday, March 8, 2008, at 10 am, and will return to MCC by 7 pm. The fee for the tour, which includes transportation, food at the soirée, and entertainment, is $75. Advanced registration is required; please call Manchester Community College Continuing Education at 860-512-3232 or 860-512-2800 to register.

Each month a group of Peer Health Advocates (PHAs) gather at The Institute for Community Research (ICR) in Hartford, CT to build their knowledge and skills, and to discuss important community issues. These PHAs, trained through ICR’s Risk Avoidance Partnership (Project RAP), deliver harm reduction and HIV prevention messages and materials to those at risk for HIV infection in their communities. Over several months, the PHAs created artwork conveying HIV prevention and harm reduction messages as well as personal messages of family, hope and healing. RAP It!, an exhibition of their work, will be on display at the WindhamARTS Collaborative’s Next Step Gallery, 866 Main Street, Willimantic, CT from March 13 through April 9, 2008, with an opening reception on Thursday, March 13 from 5 to 7 pm.

The latest science on HIV/AIDS will be the topic of February's Hartford HIV Forum. Kevin Dieckhaus, M.D., Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Connecticut Health Center, will speak on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 from 12:00-1:30 pm at The Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100, 146 Wyllys Street, Hartford. Dr. Dieckhaus will present an update from the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) to be held in early February in Boston, MA. The CROI is a scientifically focused meeting of the world's leading researchers working to understand, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and its complications. The HIV forum is free; lunch will be provided and advanced registration is required at 860-278-2044. The Hartford HIV Forum is presented by ICR and the CT AIDS Education and Training Center.

Female condoms were introduced worldwide in 1992. Since then, the female condom has proven as effective as the male condom in preventing both unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, when it is used consistently and correctly. Though studies have shown high acceptability of the female condom in many populations around the world and in this country, female condom use remains low.
In 2004 The Institute for Community Research in Hartford was funded by the National Institute on Mental Health to explore factors that enhance or impede the use of female condoms for HIV/STI prevention. Results from the study, which included a survey of 500 women in Hartford, CT, are now available in summary format and poster presentation. Click here for more female condom project details.

Watch a Channel 8 News interview with ICR Executive Director Margaret Weeks about the project findings. Click here to read a recent news article about the female condom project.

Over 200 people attended the "Xperience: Vol. II" CD Release Show on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at the Charter Oak Cultural Center. The audience was entertained by Xperience rappers, singers, poets, and dancers who had been preparing for this event as well as the release of their new CD for about 4 months. Their original works of art, conveying drug prevention messages, were well received by the community who attended the concert in support of drug-free entertainment for youth in the Hartford area. Audience members received a free copy of the "Xperience: Vol. II" CD at the end of the show. The Xperience team will be working towards a new show and CD with a new group of youth this spring.

View Pictures | Show Press Release

ICR Executive Director Collaborates with 4researchers

Executive Director Margaret Weeks, Ph.D., is a contributor at 4researchers.org, a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that disseminates practical "how-to" information about conducting research through online video interviews. Weeks has recently completed a series of five interviews on a broad range of topics.

Applying anthropological principles

Challenges with supervising staff in fieldwork situations

Critical local connections

Setting up a local partnership

Challenges with translating a Hartford, CT survey for use in China

Applied Cultural Anthropologist Joins ICR Research Staff
Stephen Pavey, Ph.D., recently joined The Institute for Community Research as an Ethnographer for the 3-year study MDMA and STD/HIV Risk Among Hidden Networks of Ecstasy-Using Young Adults in the Greater Hartford Area, known as "Borders beyond bliss." Dr. Pavey is an anthropologist, activist, and artist who last worked as an assistant professor and faculty engagement coordinator of the ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships at Western Kentucky University. During his tenure at WKU he directed the development of the Kaleidoscope community youth arts program. "I came here to engage in and support community-based research that addresses pressing local inequities, fosters sustainable community development and advocates for social justice," he says. "Learning about ICR from the Crossroads II Conference, I felt it would be a great fit." Dr. Pavey has studied Mandarin in Taiwan and conducted field research in Hong Kong for his dissertation, "Envisioning / Embodying Christianity in Hong Kong: Theologies of Power and Crisis," which he completed at the University of Kentucky in 2005. His anthropological training is further informed by a background in missiological anthropology provided by a Master of Divinity degree at Asbury Theological Seminary.

ICR Researchers Present Cutting Edge Participatory Action Research Approaches with Community Residents

ICR Senior Scientist & Founding Director Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. and Associate Director for Training Marlene Berg addressed a presidential session at the American Anthropological Association in Washington D.C. on November 30, 2007 entitled Collaborative Anthropologies, Public Engagements, and Epistemologies of Equity, organized by Luke Eric Lassiter, Ph.D., Marshall University Graduate College. The presentation is also a paper to be published in spring 2008, along with others in the session, in the inaugural issue of the journal Collaborative Anthropologies. Paper authors are Schensul, Berg and Ken Williamson, Ph.D., formerly of ICR and now of the University of South Florida Department of Anthropology.

High school age youth from throughout the Hartford and New Haven area attended and participated in an open mic night focused on teen relationships and dating violence on Thursday, December 27, 2007, from 7-10 pm at ICR, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100 (146 Wyllys St) in Hartford. Singers, poets, rappers, dancers and other young artists took part. Over the past year, youth from four communities throughout Connecticut have been involved in a collaborative youth-driven research action project of The Institute for Community Research (ICR) in Hartford and the CT Office of the Child Advocate. As a next step in the project, this Koffee House/Open Mic evening offered an opportunity for youth to express their feelings, beliefs, knowledge, experiences, and to learn about dating violence in teen relationships. The Koffee House/Open Mic will take place on The event was free; refreshments were served. The first 50 attendees received door prizes. Contact Chiedza Rodriguez at 860-278-2044 x256 or Damion Sincere Morgan at 278-2044 x312 for more information.

In 2004, AIDS was the 4th leading cause of death among Latinos in the United States. The fastest growing population in the country, Latinos face particular barriers in accessing health care, prevention services, and HIV treatment. Claudia Martorell, M.D., M.P.H. is Director and Principal Investigator at The Research Institute in Springfield, MA, specializing in infectious diseases. She addressed HIV & Latinos at Hartford’s monthly HIV Forum on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 from 12:00-1:30 pm. The forum took place at The Institute for Community Research, 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100, 146 Wyllys St in Hartford, CT. The event was free; lunch was provided and advance registration was required.

On Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1, 2007, a series of World AIDS Day events in Hartford, CT drew dozens of people to discuss the local impacts of the global pandemic. Rise [Up] Lift, organized by The Institute for Community Research, the CT AIDS Resource Coalition, the Hispanic Health Council and other community organizations, encompassed a gallery exhibit, panel discussions, and a community concert, all focusing on individuals infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS. The weekend kicked off with a silent auction of work donated for the exhibit “Celebration of Life: Affirmation, Remembrance & Activism,” which raised almost $500 to offset event costs; and closed with a free community concert featuring Latin jazz, West African drumming, spoken word, and other performances. The main draw was a series of panel discussions, held at The Institute for Community Research and the Hispanic Health Council, which focused on marginalized populations such as youth, transgender people, and prisoners. The event was an opportunity for advocates, researchers, service providers, public health officials, activists, youth organizers, and others to network and learn up to date information on HIV/AIDS in Hartford, as well as to connect and look into new ways to work together against the pandemic. “The final panel was really representative of people working on different aspects of the pandemic – research, advocacy, service, outreach, and public health,” said one member of the audience. “It was refreshing that instead of trying to compete with each other, everyone there was looking for ways to work together.”

World AIDS Day Events in Hartford Focus on Local Impact of HIV/AIDS

Hartford has the highest rate of new HIV infections and the highest number of people living with AIDS of any city in the state, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. As rates among Blacks, Latinos, women, and young people in Hartford continue to climb, The Institute for Community Research (ICR), the CT AIDS Resource Coalition (CARC), and the Hispanic Health Council joined forces with several community agencies to organize three events for World AIDS Day in Hartford. “We need to make noise,” says Evelyn Baez, a researcher at ICR who chaired the Hartford World AIDS Day Committee. “We need to let people know that AIDS is still with us.”

Every month, Peer Health Advocates (PHAs) gather at The Institute for Community Research (ICR) to build their knowledge and skills, socialize, and discuss important issues in their communities. Members of the Community Advocacy Group have been trained to do harm reduction and HIV prevention outreach to people using drugs in Hartford. Over the last several months, the PHAs have engaged in interactive sessions where they create art that tells their personal life stories. They were asked to create harm reduction posters and worked on making quilt squares as part of a large AIDS Awareness quilt, which will be part of ICR's permanent art collection. Their work has been on display at ICR’s Jean J. Schensul Community Gallery, 2 Hartford Square West, Ste. 100 (146 Wyllys St) in Hartford, since November 16, 2007. Gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm, or by appointment.

An unusual bus tour explored Hmong culture and attend the community’s most important annual festival. Guided by Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP) Director Lynne Williamson, the tour traveled to Enfield, where the majority of Connecticut’s 500 Hmong live. Tour participants joined the Hmong to celebrate their New Year. The tour is a collaboration between CHAP, a program of The Institute for Community Research (ICR), and Manchester Community College. The tour departed from Manchester Community College’s Parking Lot C on Saturday, November 17, 2007, at 1 pm, and returned to MCC by 8 pm. The fee for the tour, which included food, was $55.

Xperience Hartford Adds Production Team; Moves to Mi Casa
Begun in 2005, Xperience Hartford is an arts-based intervention encouraging Hartford area youth not to use drugs. Several young artists have performed through the project, most recently at a CD-release show drawing over 180 people in May. Now, Xperience has expanded in both aim and scope. Mi Casa, a longtime partner of The Institute for Community Research (ICR), will host Xperience as an after-school program for local youth. And in addition to roughly 20 artists recruited in August and September to incorporate drug-prevention messages into their original work, project facilitators will train new youth to produce the shows – running stage, house and promotions operations themselves. The youth are currently working on another CD, which will be released at a show in January 2008. All participants are between 14-20. If you are interested in joining the next phase of Xperience, please call 860.982.9985 or visit www.xperiencehartford.org; the next round will begin in February 2008.

Hmong embroiderers, a Romanian woodcarver and a Somali basket weaver are just a few of the artists who sold their work at a traditional artists’ marketplace on Saturday, November 3, 2007 from 11 am to 5 pm at The Institute for Community Research (ICR), 2 Hartford Square West, Suite 100 in Hartford, CT. The event, which was free and open to the public, also included rug weavers, crochet artists, and jewelry makers, representing recent immigrant and refugee groups from across Southern New England. Organized by ICR’s CT Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP), the marketplace was part of Hartford Open Studios Weekend, a creative showcase for local artists held annually in Hartford.

The Institute for Community Research (ICR) sought creative individuals who are infected, affected or working in the field of HIV/AIDS, artists (emerging, mid-career) and youth (ages 13-21) to submit artwork for exhibition and auction to “Celebration of Life: Affirmation, Remembrance, & Activism.” The exhibit, hosted at the institute until December 21, 2007, honors those who are living with HIV/ AIDS, and those who have died, and is a call for prevention and sustained support and care for people who are affected and infected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The opening reception and auction were held on November 30, 2007, from 4:30-8:00 pm. Auction proceeds from donated work were used to offset the costs of Rise [Up] Lift, a series of free educational workshops, panels, and a community concert on December 1, 2007, World AIDS Day.

Dr. Gary Blick, who has worked with HIV/AIDS patients since the outbreak of the disease in the United States, presented on HIV & Cardiovascular Health at October's HIV Forum at The Institute for Community Research. The forum took place at ICR, 146 Wyllys St, Suite 100, Hartford, CT, on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 from 12:00-1:30 pm. Lunch was provided and advance registration was required.

Over 400 people attended an evening worship service focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness on Saturday, September 22, 2007. Organized by CeCe Jones of Sing For Change, the service took place at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Bloomfield. Jones partnered with Sankofa Enterprises, The Institute for Community Research, The CT AIDS Resource Coalition, Latinos Community Services and the church to provide a training entitled, “Approaching HIV from a Theological Perspective” – particularly focusing on the surge in rates among African-Americans. After a dinner and training, gospel singers took over the night, interspersing their performances with testimonials from people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The event was sponsored by Abbott Laboratories, Gilead, Inc, the Hilton Garden Inn, and the Sheraton Hartford Hotel.

The Southern New England Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program was seeking master traditional artists in Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts who want to teach their art form to an apprentice from their community in one of the other states. Now in its tenth year, the program is designed to foster the sharing of traditional (folk) artistic skills and cultural knowledge through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a master artist to a student/apprentice. A new group of apprenticeships began in November 2007; applications were due October 2, 2007. ICR's Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program manages this program for traditional artists in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The program is a collaboration among the three statewide folk arts programs in Southern New England, located at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in Providence, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council in Boston. Primary funding for the Program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, along with the Program partners. For more information, please contact Lynne Williamson at 860-278-2044 x251 or Lynne.Williamson@icrweb.org.

The Institute for Community Research has begun a new 5-year study, entitled “High-risk Establishments and Women’s HIV Prevention in Southern China.” The intervention encourages sex workers to use the female condom as an HIV/STD prevention method. Continuing a longstanding collaboration, U.S. and Chinese investigators will work with Hainan and Guanxi provincial health departments, local communities, and sex-work establishment proprietors to conduct the study in two rural and two mid-sized urban towns in these provinces. Researchers will identify, through triangulated data, which characteristics are most likely to affect risk and intervention outcomes. The project has significant public health implications, because increased female condom use would reduce sexual HIV transmission in this high-risk population, and therefore in the broader population of their sexual networks.

The “downlow” refers to secret sex among men who don’t identify as gay, and who are often in relationships with women. “My concern is for women who are being faithful and have no clue that this is going on,” says CeCe Jones. In addition to her position as Membership Services Coordinator at the Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition (CARC), Jones has founded Sing for Change, a non-profit that works with churches to fight the spread of HIV. To shed light on the hidden community of the downlow, Jones organizes symposiums across the state of Connecticut that invite women to learn more about the downlow and HIV risk. A forum sponsored by CARC, The Institute for Community Research (ICR), and True Colors, Inc., took place at ICR, 146 Wyllys St. in Hartford, on Tuesday, September 11, 2007, from 6-8 pm. The event was free and open to the public; light refreshments were served.