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Designed to provide education, social and medical services, and peer support
to gay,lesbian and bisexual youths between 14 and 19 years of age, this program
combines case management, comprehensive health care, and risk assessment
counseling with small group discussion sessions. During the group sessions,
transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS are investigated through workshops in
which youth create their own educational materials. Participants also receive
behavioral and cognitive skills training for coping with high-risk situations.
The case management and counseling components are designed to identify
individual needs and provide youth with appropriate services (e.g., legal,
medical, vocational). A field study of the intervention was initiated with 138
males at a community-based agency serving gay youth in New York City. The
impact of the program was found to vary over time and across racial/ethnic
groups. African-American and white teens showed a significant decrease in
unprotected anal intercourse at the three-month follow-up assessment; at six
months the decrease was recorded only among whites. On measures of unprotected
oral intercourse, white and Hispanic youths engaged in fewer risk acts through
the twelve-month assessment; for African-Americans, the decrease was maintained
only until six months following the intervention.
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