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Asking for Community Assistance to Prepare for Large HIV Vaccine Trials in San Francisco Issue: Large Phase III HIV vaccine trials could have substantial impacts on the communities in which they take place. As a result communities should understand the trials and, to some degree, collectively consent to their conduct. Researchers must consider how to approach their relationships with communities as they prepare for large HIV vaccine trials. Project: Organizers working in community economic development efforts have used resource assessments to focus on how the existing capacity of a community can help to solve community problems. A community educator in San Francisco used this technique in order to target efforts to prepare a community for Phase III vaccine trials. Results: Approaching a series of community groups and opinion leaders as key resources for HIV vaccine trial preparedness often generated useful results. A team presented information to 16 community groups without directly asking for help; only one of these groups responded with any independent action towards preparing for vaccine trials. Asking for help from six other groups prompted independent action and more concrete contributions towards community preparedness in five of these six instances. For instance, a legal services organization conducted legal research on vaccine-specific legal issues, prepared a brochure on the topic, and offered legal assistance to trial volunteers; a hotline prepared to answer questions; and a street priest offered help with recruiting sex workers in his parish. Conclusion: Researchers can help a community prepare for a large HIV vaccine trial by asking for help from a wide variety of individuals, organizations and institutions. This approach should in turn help the community prepare for the impact of Phase III HIV vaccine trials and make informed decisions about trials’ community-level costs and benefits. Organizing community resources, as opposed to simply disseminating information, can be a more focused approach to preparing for large vaccine trials. Joe Wright
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