Project Achievements: Health Initiatives for Youth

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

Health Initiatives for Youth

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

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.