intervention from the research team (Madison, McKay, and the CHAMP Collaborative Board, 1998). Community support was hypothesized to facilitate wider dissemination of prevention messages and strategies (Galbraith, Ricardo, et al., 1996; Schenshul, 1999; Stevenson and White, 1994). The team believed that given the business skills necessary to run such programs, large community-based agencies might be more able than academic research teams to retain proven programs within their infrastructure, enhancing the likelihood that a specific program would be sustained over time (Galbraith, Ricardo, et al., 1996; Goark and McCall, 1996). Community leaders were also responsible for the day-to-day research operation (with consultation from university researchers) (McKay, Chasse, et al., 2004).

CHAMP-Chicago and New York were also funded to study how to transfer an academic research project (based at the University of Illinois in Chicago and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York), with both efficacy and effectiveness components. For example, in Chicago the program was transferred to a community-based organization (Habilitative Systems Inc., a social service agency in urban Chicago). Key elements of the framework for this 13-year transfer are (1) ensuring a good academic-agency fit, (2) early planning for sustainability, (3) building in continuous quality improvement, and (4) balancing program adaptation with fidelity (Baptiste, Blachman, et al., 2007).

The experience implementing the CHAMP Program in Chicago and New York helped inform the 2001 CHAMP-South Africa research project. Based on its success, in 2007, the South African HIV prevention intervention obtained private foundation funding to serve 500 families, many of whom were in the control condition during the study.