Objectives: Although HIV prevention programs have shown efficacy in reducing HIV risk behavior, efforts to implement empirically-supported programs in minority communities – the most affected by HIV – have been difficult. Inclusion of community-based leadership in research has been suggested as one way for helping resolve these issues. This study aimed to explain how a community-based collaborative board (urban parents, community-based service providers and university-based researchers) came together as a formalized partnership and have sustained over time their commitments to designing and to implementing HIV prevention research.

Methods: Data were drawn from individual interviews with members of the Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Project (CHAMP) Board, a board that oversees the design, delivery and testing of NIMH-funded HIV prevention research projects. The sample included all 29 members of the CHAMP Board: 12 Latinos, 12 African Americans, and five Caucasians; five males and 24 females; ages ranging from 25 to 65. Interviews were audio recorded and lasted about 75 minutes. Participants reported on how they became involved with the Board and were probed for what influenced them to stay committed over time. Data were analyzed and coded independently following standard procedures for content analysis. First all interviews were analyzed together for common themes, and then analyzed for differences as three separate groups, urban parents (n = 15), service providers (n = 5) and university-based researchers (n = 9).

Results. All three groups of Board members had similar reasons for coming together and different ones for maintaining the work of the Board over time. Most participants reported a serious preoccupation with the rates of infection in their neighborhoods. A human desire to form alliances with people who want to develop better health conditions in their communities was a key ingredient for keeping Board members together. Natural leaders on the Board provide the narrative for the Board's philosophy. A recurrent decision-making process, involving Board members as individuals and/or in specific committees, was a key factor for maintaining the Board. Each group of participants described similar reasons for maintaining their commitments to HIV prevention research, and these were different from the reasons given by each of the other two groups. Community residents reported a profound desire to learn more about HIV and to teach their children. They explained that HIV is a serious matter and that they want to help their community in any way they can. University-based research staff and students stated personal and career developments as major reasons for their involvement. Service providers reported that the community-focused nature of the programs the CHAMP Board oversees kept them committed over time.

Implications: This study shows that different groups of people with both common and unrelated reasons can work successfully in HIV prevention research. In order for meaningful ongoing research collaboration to occur, researchers will need to provide leadership that accounts for community members' and service providers' concerns about and aspirations for their communities. Collaborative efforts must be community-centered and foster full participation of all constituencies in decision-making processes regarding HIV prevention research.