Community Working Group

The Community Working Group (CWG) functions as the lead working group to facilitate, direct, and advocate for inclusion of the research community as partners in the HPTN research.

CWG Members

CWG Minutes

The goal of the CWG is to advocate, take action, build capacity, and provide technical assistance to Network participants and communities.

This is done through participation in regular conference calls and face-to-face meetings of the CWG as well as with interaction with the community Regional Working Groups (RWGs), HPTN protocol teams and other network committees.

The CWG Mission is to:

Inform, facilitate and guide the development of a community centered, relevant, utilitarian and ethical research agenda.
Bridge the gap between research participants, the communities in which they live and the research community.
Proactively identify challenges and provide formalized mechanisms for dialogue that will provide ethical and scientific rigor aimed at effectively reducing the number of new infections.

The CWG Goals are to:

Increase understanding of community collaboration in HIV prevention research
Develop community capacity within HPTN sites to participate in research collaboration
Assure that all research conducted within the HPTN is done in collaborative partnership with the community by integrating community perspectives

The CWG goals are met by:

Integrating the participation of community members who represent diverse HIV study communities and their advocates into the CWG, the Ethics Working Group (EWG), Science Working Groups (SWGs), protocol teams and other HPTN committees as partners.
Promoting understanding of community needs and issues among HPTN researchers.
Informing and advising the HPTN Executive Committee on issues of concern.
Providing leadership to HPTN site community staff in addressing cross-cutting issues for culturally diverse populations, communities and technical areas that form the focus of HPTN research, including ethics.
Implementing a participatory process that values people’s time and energy.
Supporting collaboration and partnership at the site, working group and network levels.
Advising and advocating for Network efforts to support research and evaluation addressing community participation at all levels of Network HIV prevention research.
Providing face-to-face and written updates for the HPTN annual report and for presentation to the Executive Committee and the External Advisory Committee at the HPTN annual meetings.

Structure and Membership
Originally, the CWG had between 20 and 25 members. In February of 2002, the CWG chairs in collaboration with the CORE Community Involvement Program (CIP) staff facilitated a strategic planning meeting that resulted in rewriting the objectives of the CWG and restructuring the organization of community participation within the Network. A PowerPoint slide showing a complete version of the Restructure of the CWG is also available.

The CWG has both an international and U.S. co-chair, one of which is appointed by the Executive Committee chair. Both serve a minimum two-year term.

Official membership in the CWG includes up to 15 individuals:

2 CWG Co-chairs: one international and one U.S.
6 Regional Working Group Chairs, 2 from each of the RWGs (Africa, Americas, and Eurasia)
2 EC liaisons (appointed by the EC Chair)
3-5 Ex-officio members representing social scientists, legal concerns and the Ethics Working Group.

CORE Community Involvement Program (CIP) staff act as facilitators for the CWG. Other site staff are welcome to participate on the calls, but decision-making responsibilities remain within the CWG membership.

The CWG meets routinely via conference call and, at a minimum, annually at a face-to-face meeting that has traditionally coincided with the full HPTN annual meeting.

CWG Representation in the Network
The CWG has an active presence in the Network both as a working group and with its representation in the HPTN governing processes. Two Executive Committee members are appointed by the EC Chair to serve on the CWG as liaisons to ensure appropriate representation in deliberations regarding site involvement and network operations. In addition, the CWG Co-chairs report to EC at their biannual face-to-face meetings.

The CWG meets routinely via conference call and, at a minimum, annually at a face-to-face meeting. At least one CWG chair attends each of the semi-annual EC meetings to report on activities of the working group and to discuss crosscutting community involvement issues in the HIV prevention research.

CWG The CWG meets face-to-face at least annually, usually in conjunction with the full HPTN Annual Meeting in February. The report for the 2002 CWG meeting documents the activities, decisions made, and action items identified over the 3-day meeting; the complete CWG Annual Meeting Report is available. Presentations given at the CWG Annual Meetings can be found in the Community Involvement Toolbox.

Conference Calls
The CWG conducts conference calls at least quarterly, but will be meeting monthly during the restructuring and strategic planning process. To find out when the next CWG conference call will be conducted, please contact Rhonda White.

HPTN Discretionary Funded Projects
As with other HPTN Working Groups, the CWG has the ability to review requests to access the HPTN’s discretionary funding. Discretionary funds are intended to support defined activities that further the HPTN agenda.

CWG Contacts:
Janet Frohlich, International Co-chair

Jonathan Lucas, Community Program Manager, FHI
Rhonda White, Community Program Manager, FHI
Charlyne Rich, Community Program Administrative Assistant, FHI

CWG Members:

Paulo Alencastro get info

Apinun Aramrattana get info

Julio Barros get info

Suwat Chariyalertsak get info

Felluna Chauwa get info

Wipada Cheewawat get info

Nuntisa Chotirosniramit get info

Janet Frohlich get info

Daniel Gondwe get info

Luciana Kamel get info

Lillian Nawa Kashela get info