The New Jersey Collegiate Consortium for Health in Education in conjunction with Rutgers, The State University, New Brunswick, N.J. developed a manual on safe sexual health practices for college students, covering topics such as the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and the use of alcohol and drugs in the context of sexual relationships.

The New Jersey Collegiate Consortium for Health in Education serves as a resource for HIV/AIDS education for institutions of higher learning in the state of New Jersey.

This project was initiated when a survey of consortium members revealed that most prevention programs and materials are geared toward high school students, and there was a lack of college-specific materials and effective prevention programs.

Key Results

• Consortium members conducted a literature search and review to identify strategies and resources for creating effective interventions for a college audience. The review revealed that there is a dearth of well-evaluated programs and little is truly understood about what and how college health programming changes student behavior.
• The consortium assembled an advisory board — which included undergraduate students, college administrators and health educators and academic researchers— to review 50 program ideas.
• About half of the program ideas were approved for publication in the completed manual, More Ways to Go: Sex-Positive Strategies and Resources for Creating a Healthy Campus Environment.
• Three thousand copies of the manual were published in September 1999, and 2,500 copies have been distributed nationwide to higher education administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with a grant of $47,825 between July 1997 and September 1999.