Enhancing youth-based housing services and HIV prevention through community engagement: A successful model for identifying and implementing structural changes for homeless LGBT adolescents

Introduction: Unstable housing is a structural variable impacting HIV risk in the US. Research illustrates that homeless youth face greater risk for sexual assault, survival sex, and HIV. Barriers to stabilizing housing include an inadequate number of adolescent facilities and limited collaboration between service organizations and shelters. LGBT youth are disproportionately represented in the homeless population and comprise a unique at risk group.

Methods: Connect to Protect (C2P) Philadelphia's mission is to reduce HIV/AIDS rates among YMSM and their networks through collaborative efforts of local communities and health researchers. C2P is a community research project of the Adolescent Trials Network for HIV Prevention that addresses structural barriers to HIV prevention, such as housing, through strategic planning and structural change capacity building.

Findings and Conclusions: The housing subcommittee for C2P Philadelphia focuses on the connection between youth with insecure housing and HIV prevention. This committee is composed of members representing a variety of sectors including staff working in homeless youth shelters, transitional living facilities and LGBT youth centers; researchers; and clinicians. This presentation, developed by coalition members, describes the committee's journey from implementing programmatic level structural changes, such as hygiene kit distribution across sectors and instituting LGBT awareness trainings for shelter staff, to advocating for city level policy changes. C2P efforts to address the lack of data on this population, including developing data collection tools for partner organizations, writing policy briefs, and initiating a media campaign, are also described. This model demonstrates positive outcomes for LGBT youth through successful community engagement.