Teen
Health Empowerment Project
Homeless adolescents have a long story behind them. They are troubled youth who
have been kicked out of their homes or juvenile detention (8). Some left home
due to experience with a troubled family background, where the parents are being
abusive. Of those youngsters who left home, 53% left due to the strictness of
parenting, 46% violence in the home, 24% mentally ill parents, 43% physical
abuse and 23% sexual abuse (9). These youth are out on the streets and are
easier to encounter more contraction chances. Because they do not have any
money, they would engage in sexual activities for necessities such as money,
food, drugs and shelter (9). These adolescents reside in homeless shelters.
These adolescents within the high risk areas of Brooklyn such as Crown Heights
and Bedford Stuyvesant would reside in shelters such as the Woman’s Shelter
located on
85 Lexington Ave in
Crown Heights (point C on map),
Peter Young Shelter Services Inc. located on
1140 Pacific St in Bedford Stuyvesant (point
E), St. John’s Place Family Center located on 1630 St. John's Place in Bedford
Stuyvesant (point F) and Wayside Macdonough Residence
located on 771
Macdonough St in Bedford Stuyvesant (point H) (Map 1).
i
In the solution in solving this specific HIV/AIDS group, a program called
the Teen Health Empowerment Project. It would consist of an education program, a
mentoring program, a peer support group and a required participation program in
a HIV/AIDS clinic.
Google map
Most homeless adolescents are not able to obtain education in the
public school system; therefore an education program within the homeless shelter
would be established. Prevention education would be set up once a week and are
mandatory for adolescents to stay in a shelter, if they fail to attend them,
they would be removed from the shelter. In research, an implement of education
programs have increased the learners’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS and positively
changed their attitude towards the disease. However it did not achieve its goal
in changing the risky behaviors among the learners (10). Prevention through
education at least informs the youngsters the ways to prevent contracting the
disease, and in hope to change their attitude and as well as their behaviors.
Research has shown that youth are capable of learning faster than adults due to
their quick ability to adjust to change (11). This would be a good chance to
remove the stigma among African American communities. The best approach in
addressing stigma is to ask adolescents to be courageous and “come out of the
closet.” There is a lot of pressure among African American men that they need to
heterosexual in order to be successful in the society. They are also pressured
to conform to society’s expectation of being “straight” and the immediate
association of contradicting HIV/AIDS through men having sex with men
populations (17, 19, 23, 24 & 31). Research has shown that drug users are often
discriminated especially when finding jobs or support, therefore they refrain
from expressing their sexual orientation (20). Such social bias prohibits HIV
positive African Americans from participating in the health programs (21, 25).
They are afraid of the non-acceptance response within Church and the general
population of the black community, and they are encouraged to speak out against
the stigma and to overcome their own attitude that the community will not accept
them (18, 28 & 30). Furthermore, this education system can also advocate for the
idea of “no condom, no sex” in teens (22).
photo credited: http://training.usgs.gov/images/MentoringLogo.gif
A mentoring program would also be put into
force also. According to Rotheram-Borus et al., devising a program that would
target the adolescents that do not go to shelters would help those who wander on
the streets (7). The research suggests that a health educator should be on the
same block for to help educate those youths that wander around that block. This
gave me an idea that a mentoring program that would help pair up a medical or a
health advisor from clinics in Brooklyn that are experienced in dealing with
adolescents with a troubled homeless adolescent to give them guidance and
support. This program would be funded and monitored through the nearby homeless
shelters. The mentors would be paid a stipend of $100 a week, and their jobs are
to meet the youngster twice a week, in hoping to gain perspective and more
knowledge about the disease, and also to help them to break their habits. In
2006, there are 168 new HIV cases among adolescents (6). Therefore, the budget
of this mentoring program in the Teen Empowerment Project would be about
$16,800. A mentor should act as a model for the adolescents, and also be an
adult friend that the adolescent can talk to. The mentor would also be
fulfilling the role of the missing parents in their childhood or early
adolescent stage, in hopes to bring the adolescents the positive message and the
knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention.
Next, a peer support group would be
established in the homeless shelter. Gibson et al. reports that communication is
the key to lowering the injection drug rates (12). Peer education and
discussion encourages adolescents to share their common feelings, therefore
creating a friendship bond, and make people more open to counseling (5). Topics
that can be discussed are building self-esteem, self-respect, different
experiences with the disease, in seeing others’ experiences; it ultimately open
up the adolescents’ eyes and help stop their risky behaviors that would increase
the chances of acquiring HIV (14).
For the last part of the prevention program,
adolescents are required participation in an active role in a HIV/AIDS
prevention program. Adolescents may participate in church outreach programs. In
the neighborhood church, Greater Restoration Baptist Church provides some form
of HIV/AIDS program for residents to participate in (http://www.churchbenefits.org/AIDS/AIDS_day.icm).
A study in Texas devised and allowed African American adolescents to participate
in a BRIDGE program (Bold, Ready, Intelligent, Dedicated, Guided, Equipped) to
create a HIV/AIDS curriculum that aims to teach middle school adolescents the
information (15). As a result of the study, there has been a significant
increase in HIV/AIDS knowledge and adolescents now associate this disease with
fear. Thus devising a participation program that would make adolescents to be
more hands on with the disease would increase adolescents’ clear perception of
this deadly disease (26). Adolescents may visit the clinics and talk to HIV/AIDS
patients and actually see first hand experience on how the treatments work.
Seeing the disease may cause trauma to the youths and similarly to the Texas
church study, fear ultimately would be installed into them. This may condition
them to stray away from their risky behaviors and watch out what they will be
doing in the future. Knowing that youngsters do not wish to participate in this
program, the homeless shelter would require them to attend the program in order
to receive shelter and food. If they fail to attend, then they would forfeit
their place to sleep and the sources of food.
This prevention program would be focused in Crown Heights and
Bedford Stuyvesant. In order to promote these services to the homeless
adolescents, advertisements will be put up in various places in Crown Heights
and Bedford Stuyvesant (15). Billboards with the title “Injection Drugs =
Death”, and the contact information of this program to alarm the public about
the high AIDS rate among the population. Advertisements will also appear on the
side of the MTA bus and inside the subway cars. These are the most effective
places to advertise the HIV/AIDS prevention program because there is a lot of
walking traffic, and a few million of take the subway everyday. This is
especially effective when adolescents use the subway to get to school, and other
places that they need to go; they get to see the advertisements and may be
alarmed by such a blunt statement.
Financially speaking, the Teen Empowerment Project is looking to
spend about $58,797.03 annually in its educational, mentoring, peer counseling,
and participation in mandatory HIV/AIDS group. As the co-founder of HIV Forum
NYC, Dan Carlson believes that in preventing this disease is a matter of
changing the behavior of people (29). In targeting the HIV/AIDS adolescents, we
are hoping to the change the attitude and behaviors of the future towards this
deadly disease.
References
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