The Zonta Club of Essex County honors Rutgers College of Nursing's Ra...( (NEWARK N.J. March 25 2008) The Zon...),Health

(NEWARK, N.J., March 25, 2008) The Zonta Club of Essex County is honoring Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member Rachel Jones as its Woman of the Year for her HIV/AIDS research at its Annual Scholarship Brunch at the Sheraton Newark Airport on April 27.

Zonta Club of Essex County, a Zonta International chapter actively involved in providing services to women both locally and globally, selected Jones, assistant professor at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for her contributions to uplifting the status of women in Essex County concerning healthcare and the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Jones, a Boonton Township, N.J. resident, was honored for research into the potential of urban soap opera videos to communicate HIV risk reduction in young adult urban women.

It is an honor to be a recipient of this award. The award from Zonta Club of Essex County reminds us of the importance of finding innovative approaches to reduce HIV/AIDS, and to base these approaches on the wisdom of women and men in the community. Young students in multiple disciplines including nursing and the performing arts had the opportunity to participate in this research and to serve the community through practice, said Jones. The soap opera videos were based on stories told by women in focus groups held in Newark and Jersey City. These focus groups yielded insight into the problems faced by women in protecting themselves against HIV/AIDS as well as the solutions.

She and her team, composed of Alan Roth, an independent documentary filmmaker, Robert Nahory, a digital application developer at Rutgers-Newark Dana Library, nursing students, performing arts students and graduates from the Rutgers-Newark campus, technology students, and people from the community, created a 43-minute soap opera video and several shorter videos aimed at reducing HIV risk in inner city women. The research was funded by the National Institute
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