Resources > Successful Programs > Children's Hospital Connect to Protect
Last Updated: December 8, 2003
Name of Organization/Institution: The Children’s Hospital Connect to Protect and Boston HAPPENS Program
Keywords: Research; HIV; Data; Youth
Description of best practice: This is a research project linking the community with academia to decrease risk of infection with HIV among young people. We use: 1) data on HIV, STD’s, crime, race, poverty, etc. (morbidity data) mapped for Boston; 2) resources/Community Based Organizations’ (CBOs) mapped, directory built online and on paper; 3) CBO partners recruited based on program, location, youth friend lines; 4) targeted interventions implemented. The location of the interventions is based on mapping outcomes but they are usually in high-risk areas.
Since the program was started in 1993, more than 2,000 adolescents and young adults have been helped, making it one of the most successful programs in the region.
The Boston HAPPENS Program is a multi-agency network providing services and support to HIV infected, homeless and at-risk adolescents and young adults ages 12-24 years in the Metropolitan Boston area. Based in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children’s, specialists with expertise in adolescent medicine, HIV care, nursing, and mental health do outreach and work together to provide comprehensive health care and support services to youths living with HIV and those at-risk.
The Boston HAPPENS Program provides comprehensive health care and social services for patients, including:
- HIV Prevention and Health Education with Adult and Peer Counselors
- HIV Counseling and Testing Services (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons)
- HIV Care
- HIV Case Management
- Mental Health Service
In addition to providing services at Children’s, we also see clients and coordinate care with several other adolescent specific clinics throughout Boston, including: Boston Medical Center, New England Medical Center, Justice Resource Institute, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Martha Eliot Health Center, Dimock Community Health Center, and Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, and Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Inc. (MAC).
Boston Happens is funded in part by The Special Projects of National Significance Program (SPNS) as well as the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Aerosmith Endowment Fund for HIV care and prevention.
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