Achievements & Lessons Learned-G: Health Initiatives for Youth

Knowledge Item: CA-Initiative Impact-99G
Major Achievements and Lessons Learned: 1994-1999

Health Initiatives for Youth

Health Initiatives for Youth (HIFY) has improved the health, well-being, and quality of life of young people who are living with, or affected by, HIV.

In 1999, the Evaluation and Dissemination Center asked each project to state its major achievements and the lessons it had learned from conducting the project. Those stated achievements and lessons learned are reproduced here (with minor editing) as reported to the Evaluation and Dissemination Center. The summary statements given here are those aspects of the program's experiences that the Project Director wished to emphasize.

*Achievement 1:* Bridges Newsletter.
Key Elements for Success: Interdisciplinary focus on youth, HIV, and related health issues; brevity of articles; emphasis on practical care issues.	Factors that Limited Success: Providers have too much to read; many HIV providers don't think youth issues are relevant to their work and vice versa.	Factors that Ensured Success: None listed.

Achievement 2: Training "menu" of curricula on youth and HIV issues.
Key Elements for Success: Interactive training modalities, interdisciplinary focus.	Factors that Limited Success: Many agencies don't have time to send staff to trainings; opportunities for ongoing follow-up trainings are limited; large geographic target areas made it difficult to reach more distant providers.	Factors that Ensured Success: None listed.

*Achievement 3:* Needs assessment Bay Area health and social service providers in project years 1, 3, and 5.
Key Elements for Success: Inclusion of a wide cross-section of human service providers; in-depth one-on-one interviews yielded good qualitative information.	Factors that Limited Success: Response rate to mail survey was low, limiting power of results.	Factors that Ensured Success: Strong support from local evaluators.

*Achievement 4:* Youth Institute at the National AIDS Update Conference.
Key Elements for Success: Youth (consumers and peer providers) as workshop presenters; outreach to peer providers; ability to reach national audience through existing conference structure.	Factors that Limited Success: 90-minute workshop format is a limited training intervention; overall conference attendance declined over 4 years.	Factors that Ensured Success: None listed.

*Achievement 5:* Topic-based community forums in Bay Area counties.
Key Elements for Success: Interactive discussion format; brief length; focus on health issues related to HIV; customization of content to individual counties.	Factors that Limited Success: None listed.	Factors that Ensured Success: None listed.

1. Lesson Learned: HIV is not the top concern of many providers and must be addressed in the context of other youth health issues.

How related to achievements: The trainings we developed covered a wide range of other topics of concern to providers and youth, including substance use, violence, and other STDs.

2. Lesson Learned: It is difficult for a project with a small staff to train providers throughout a large geographic area such as the 5-county Bay Area through traditional venues.

How related to achievements: We reached relatively few providers in the area farthest from our office as we had no mechanisms for distance learning.

3. Lesson Learned: Training is especially needed for young (under 25) peer providers and paraprofessionals.

How related to achievements: Many of the providers we trained were young people who had not received previous training and had great need for our services.

4. Lesson Learned: Input of consumers (in our case, youth) is essential in developing training curricula.

How related to achievements: Our trainings included young people as trainers and guest presenters.

5. Lesson Learned: Other mechanisms besides training are needed to develop an enhanced service infrastructure.

How related to achievements: One of our most successful efforts was holding community forms where participants engaged in facilitated discussions and networked with each other. These forums increased referrals and interagency collaboration.

Completed By: James Colgrove, M.A.
Last Updated: May 1999

Project Resource Page

Health Initiatives for Youth

Evaluation Data

Trainee Characteristics

Training Characteristics

Technical Assistance

Last Updated: August 02, 2001; data through June 15, 1999; analyses conducted January 2000.

Knowledge Base Citation: The Knowledge Base and this Knowledge Item were designed and authored by G. J. Huba, Ph.D.; in collaboration with Lisa A. Melchior, Ph.D.; A. T. Panter, Ph.D.; and the staff of The Measurement Group. Cite this work as "Huba, G. J., Melchior, L. A., and Panter, A. T. (1998 - 2001). The Measurement Group Knowledge Base on HIV/AIDS Care. On the World Wide Web: http://www.TheMeasurementGroup.com."

Questions or Comments: Contact The Measurement Group.

Use of Knowledge Base Information: Acceptable Uses and Limitations.

Collaborators from Participating Projects: Cooperative Agreement Steering Committee 1999.

Participating Projects: This Knowledge Base is based on the service delivery experiences of 27 Cooperative Agreement Projects on Innovative Models of HIV/AIDS Care. These projects and the Evaluation and Dissemination Center which produced this Knowledge Base were funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) as Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) between 1994 and 1999.

Why This Evaluation was Conducted: Editorial.

More Information: Design of this Knowledge Base.

Recommended Citation Format for Web Materials: American Psychological Association Publication Manual Section, Revised 2001.

Work on the Knowledge Base and the cross-cutting evaluation was supported in part by Grant Number 5 U90 HA 00030-05 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau's (HAB) Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS). The contents of this Knowledge Base are solely the responsibility of The Measurement Group and do not necessarily represent the official views of HRSA or HRSA/HAB's Special Projects of National Significance nor may they represent the positions of the individual grantees whose projects are included in the cross-cutting evaluation.