204372 HIV Prevention for Housing Insecure LGBT Youth

Monday, November 9, 2009

Alison J. Lin, MPH , Adolescent Initiative, Children's Hospital of Philadephia, Philadelphia, PA
Marné Castillo, MEd, PhD , Adolescent Medicine Division, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Bevin A. Gwiazdowski , Mazzoni Center, Philadelphia, PA
Jonathan Ellen, MD , Division of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Nancy Willard, MS , Center for Child and Community Research, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Issues

Unstable housing is a structural variable impacting HIV risk among LGBT youth in the US. Research illustrates that homeless youth face greater risk for sexual assault, suicide attempts, survival sex, and HIV. Stabilizing housing for homeless youth is a challenge, and barriers include regulations for shelter facilities, number of adolescent facilities, and limited collaboration between service organizations and shelters. LGBT youth represent a disproportionate segment of the homeless population, and comprise a unique at-risk population.

Description

Connect to Protect® Philadelphia, a coalition of youth service organizations and community partners, addresses HIV prevention for young men who have sex with men. The coalition focuses on identifying root causes of risk, as a prelude to engaging the community in structural change solutions that will decrease HIV transmission among YMSM.

Lessons Learned

This presentation will focus on describing how the context and process of community engagement are improving housing security issues in Philadelphia. Lessons learned from the development process will be discussed, as will plans for future work in this area.

Recommendations

Future efforts will focus on sustaining community engagement and identifying additional solutions that decrease HIV risk for LGBT youth.

Learning Objectives:
Identify root causes that put housing insecure LGBT youth at risk for HIV. Describe three levels of collaboration among youth service organizations that impact HIV risk for this population. Formulate strategies to integrate HIV prevention efforts and housing services.

Keywords: Youth, Coalition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I led the conceptualization and writing of this abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Adolescents and HIV
See more of: HIV/AIDS