A Lesson Plan from Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program

Purpose: To develop compassion for people with AIDS (PWAs) and to reduce fears of contracting HIV from casual contact

Materials: Question Box and index cards; guest speakers with AIDS; pens/pencils 

Session 1: 30 minutes; Session 2: 60 minutes; Session 3: 30 minutes

Planning Notes:

• Depending on your school or agency policies, you may need to obtain parental or other permission for outside speakers.
• Personalizing AIDS helps group members deal with fears and misconceptions. People with AIDS can dramatically portray the reality of living with the disease and help break through teenagers' wall of invincibility. For all of these reasons, it is very important to expend the energy to convene this important panel.
• Invite one or two speakers who are HlV positive or have AIDS. Call an AIDS service provider in your area to find a speaker. These organizations often have speaker's bureaus. You can also call the National Association of People with AIDS (1 [202] 8984414) to tap into their national speaker's bureau. Identify speakers who are young and match the ethnic background of the majority of your participants. Contact the speakers individually and tell them about your group. Identify the points you want the speakers to address and make sure they are comfortable interacting with adolescents. If you have already collected questions for the speakers, share those in advance of the session. Make a reminder call to the speakers a few days prior to the session.

Session 1

1. Announce that one or more speakers will come to the next session to discuss personal experiences with HIV/AIDS. Give the names and health status of the speakers and ask participants what they expect to hear. What is one hope they have? What is one fear they have? Participants could also respond anonymously on index cards, which you can read aloud.
2. Use participants' expectations as an agenda for the session. Distribute index cards and have each person write down the one question for the speakers.
3. Address any fears directly. If a student fears being exposed to HIV, review how HIV is transmitted. If other participants fear that peers will behave rudely, have the group establish ground rules for appropriate behavior with the guests.

1. Introduce the guest speakers and explain that they will spend 15 minutes telling their stories and then answer questions. Turn the session over to the first speaker.
   
   After the speakers have finished their formal remarks, they can take verbal questions first, saving the last 10 minutes of the time to respond to any written questions that have not yet been answered.
   
   If participants run out of questions, ask the following:
• How do you approach relationships now that you have HIV/AIDS?
• How do you deal with sex now that you have HIV/AIDS?
• How do people react when they find out your health status?
• What gives you happiness in your life'
• What steps do you take to stay as healthy as possible?

Session 3

1. Use the Discussion Points for a 30 minute session for participants to respond to the panel.

1. What was your general reaction to the speakers? What surprised you about their stories?
2. What were you feeling (as opposed to thinking) during the presentation?
3. What is the most important thing you learned from the speakers? What impact will their message have on your behavior? How will you react to someone new who is HIV positive or has AIDS?
4. What, if anything, would have made the panel discussion more informative?
   

Follow-Up Activity:
Have the group write a thank you letter to the speaker(s) about what was learned and the impact of the presentation.