In 1995, seven volunteers dedicated to fulltime HIV/AIDS work incorporated as the nonprofit Massachusetts Asians and Pacific Islanders (MAP) for Health. At the time, the number of HIV infections in Boston's Asian/Pacific Islander (API) community was relatively small, but MAP for Health founders were worried that both mainstream HIV/AIDS organizations and health centers serving the API community were ill-prepared to deal with HIV in APIs.

"HIV is the intersection of some very taboo topics in the Asian community, and we were seeing that some Asian service providers weren't doing very much about it," said MAP for Health co-founder and former board member Quynh Dang.

The group found that those most at-risk, gay and bisexual API men, were largely unreachable because their sexuality isolated them from their communities. "I think we really had a hard time reaching Asian men who are still in the closet or who didn't identify as gay men," said Dang.

While stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS persists in the API community, MAP for Health is finding it easier to engage gay and bisexual API men. MAP for Health is sponsoring Asian Impact, a prevention program modeled after the CDC-endorsed Mpowerment Project. With the goal of reducing HIV infections among men who have sex with men, Asian Impact seeks to build a community network of gay and bisexual APIs and spread prevention messages through the community. MAP for Health sponsors the program's social activities and incorporates prevention messages within them.

There are few bars or clubs -- traditional targets for HIV prevention campaigns -- in Boston where gay and bisexual API men gather. Asian Impact circumvents that problem by creating a new space for social networking, said MAP for Health Executive Director Jacob Smith Yang.

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