Bay Area Young Positives, Inc. (BAY Positives) is a San Francisco-based organization run by young people living with HIV for young people living with HIV. The project’s target population is gay and bisexual young men, youth of color, and young women. Bay Positives provides peer psychosocial support to youth through support groups, counseling, advocacy, therapeutic expression, and recreational activities. The project strives to accomplish the following.

• Improvements in the emotional and social health of adolescents and young adults who have tested positive for HIV by using peer-based support services

• Increase access to existing medical care, social services, and financial assistance programs by empowering young people with HIV with information to understand health and services information

• Reduction in the stress levels of infected young people and improvements in their nutrition and living conditions by offering practical support services

It has been found that when young people are brought together to mentor their peers, the challenges of living with HIV become more manageable. Therefore, in order to maintain its peer leadership model, BAY Positives recruits, hires, trains and supports HIV-positive young people in direct service positions, as well as administrative and management positions. Over the last three years, the majority of the staff hired has come to work at BAY Positives because of their previous involvement as members. This has created a staff team that is strongly supportive and committed to the agency and its mission, and is linked personally as well as professionally.

Aggregate data collected as of April 1997 show that staff made 187 contacts among its target population of youth. The topics discussed during initial contacts included youth empowerment (75.9%), HIV services (53.4%), social/psychological services (53.4%), services for their SPNS Program project (48.3%), and general health services (41.4%). Through April 1997, 291 interventions were provided to Bay Positive clients. The different types of sessions are illustrated in the box to the right. In addition, staff had provided 53 in-service trainings to other agencies on agency education/training (13.8%), agency outreach (56.4%), community outreach (37.9%), and educational lectures (62.1%).

BAY Positives also has developed a training manual based on their experiences. This manual outlines the establishment and development of BAY Positives as a peer-based, peer-run non-profit organization. Moreover, the manual serves as a model for other agencies wanting to include youth components in their programs, as well as for young people who want to duplicate the BAY Positives model.

BAY Positives has become a prominent voice in the continuum of services and care for young people living with HIV. Young people with HIV are best served by organizations that use a peer model such as Bay Positives’. Moreover, services provided by and for HIV-positive youth can restore the confidence and hope that young people living with HIV need to take care of themselves.