Iris House | Listen Up

Listen-Up

The goals of Listen-Up, a program of Iris House, are to educate young black heterosexual and men who are having sex with men (MSM), between ages 18-24, in Substance Abuse (SA) and HIV prevention interventions. The program aims to reduce substance abuse and the transmission of HIV/AIDS among at-risk racial/ethnic minority young adults while also promoting positive communications among sexual partners to change social norms and perceptions of African American males regarding condom use.

Listen-Up will use Nia, a CDC approved DEBI, which will be implemented during a six hour, two to four session, video-based, small group-level intervention. Click here to read more about Nia.

The goals of this intervention are to educate African American men about HIV/AIDS and its effect on their community, bring groups of men together, increase motivation to reduce risks, and help men learn new skills to protect themselves and others by promoting condom use and increasing intentions to use condoms. Nia’s Target Population: African American men (ages 18 and over) who have sex with women.

Listen-Up will also utilize d-up!, a CDC approved DEBI, that uses a community-level intervention for black men who have sex with men (MSM). d-up! is designed to change social norms and perceptions of black MSM regarding condom use.

d-up! finds and enlists opinion leaders whose advice is respected and trusted by their peers. These opinion leaders are trained to change risky sexual norms in their own social networks. Opinion leaders participate in a four session training and endorse condom use in conversations with their friends and acquaintances. d-up! Target Population: d-up! specifically targets black MSM who are in social networks with other black MSM.

For more information about Listen-Up Program and to participate in the focus groups, please contact

Serge M. Jean at sjean@irishouse.org or 646-548-0100 x236.