Project Achievements: Center for Women Policy Studies Metro DC Collaborative

HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau's Special Projects of National Significance [1994 - 1999]:

Center for Women Policy Studies Metro DC Collaborative

Completed by: Wendy Smooth
Last Updated: May 1999

Achievement 1: Set up extensive network of women with HIV/AIDS from diverse communities. Seen more women involved and attend Ryan White Planning Council Meetings.

Key Elements for
Success:

Including women in all phases of the project.

Factors that Limited
Success:

Few existing networks to tap to build our network.

Factors the Ensured
Success:

Allowing women with HIV/AIDS to set the agenda, which allowed the network to service the needs of the community more directly.

Achievement 2: Published a number of policy reports that are very accessible (i.e., information and writing style) to a range of constituents (women with HIV/AIDS, policy makers, and practitioners).
Key Elements for Success: Supportive Center staff members who made collaborative publications a priority.	Factors that Limited Success: None listed.	Factors the Ensured Success: Documentation of the information sharing meetings through the reports empowered the women attending the meetings because they saw through the reports that they too had expertise with the system.

Achievement 3: Publication of quarterly Woman Care News newsletter provides current news/policy updates.
Key Elements for Success: More brief than reports and are able to get information to the constituents in a more concise format.	Factors that Limited Success: None listed.	Factors the Ensured Success: None listed.

*Achievement 4:* Building a strong working relationship with the women of the community and building trust was paramount.
Key Elements for Success: The Center’s perspective on our work – centering our work on women of color and having all of our work focus in this direction made this project easier and made it a bit easier to touch diverse communities and build the trust necessary to make it work.	Factors that Limited Success: None listed.	Factors the Ensured Success: None listed.

*Achievement 5:* Created a model training program – Fighting for Our Lives – which extends the reach of training to build a more expansive network.
Key Elements for Success: None listed.	Factors that Limited Success: Not having the capacity to accept all of the women who were interested in the workings of the project; ability to leave behind the activity/training because of the costs and resources needed to conduct the trainings.	Factors the Ensured Success: Tapping a number of community centered programs to provide information germane to women’s lives.

Lessons Learned from this Project

Project Index for Achievements and Lessons Learned

Center for Women Policy Studies Metro DC Collaborative