SPNS/Fax: An Electronic Report from HRSA/HAB's SPNS Cooperative Agreements:
Volume 3, Issue 4 (February 20, 1998)

Information dissemination from 27 Innovative Models of HIV Care projects funded as Special Projects of National Significance by the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Introduction

Welcome to SPNS/Fax: An Electronic Report from HRSA/HAB's SPNS Cooperative Agreements. In each issue of SPNS/Fax, we will highlight findings from the HRSA Special Projects of National Significance Program Cooperative Agreements. The projects have been funded to develop innovative models of HIV/AIDS care. SPNS/Fax reports are distributed every two weeks by fax machine to all subscribers. All issues of SPNS/Fax are also available at this Web site. Due to slight differences in the media, issues distributed by fax machine may appear slightly different from those posted on this Web site, but the content is identical.

Health Initiatives for Youth’s (HIFY) Youth AIDS/HIV Community Training project provides training, technical assistance and informational resources to service providers who work with youth ages 13 to 25 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The objective has been to increase service providers’ knowledge, skills, and comfort levels in working on HIV issues with adolescents and young adults to ultimately increase satisfaction among youth with the HIV-related care they receive.

HIFY offers trainings through three primary venues: a large, annual national conference; standardized cross-agency trainings offered at regular intervals; and customized in-service presentations for agency staff. HIFY has greatly exceeded its goals of designing and providing/facilitating a broad and flexible range of tailored and culturally appropriate trainings. Since the project’s inception in October 1994, 151 trainings have been provided to 7,400 service providers and youth located in five Bay Area counties. Of these trainings, 71.5% were attended by social service providers, 60.9% by counselors, 51.7% by case managers, 49.7% by young people (ages 19 to 25), 42.4% by mental health providers, and 36.4% by primary health care providers.

In the summer of 1997, HIFY conducted an Agency Impact Assessment of health and social service providers in the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Sonoma. Fourteen respondents from 10 non-profit agencies were interviewed in order to: 1) gauge the effectiveness and impact of HIFY’s three service categories and 2) identify the continuing and emerging needs of the different communities with which HIFY works. The results revealed that HIFY’s training and technical assistance services were seen as the most valuable and had the greatest impact on agency staff and service delivery.

The majority of the agencies reported that HIFY’s training services had either a "noticeable" or "significant" impact on their staff, services, clients, and organizational development/structure (i.e., infrastructure). The chart on the right summarizes the mean ratings of the impact of various HIFY trainings on different aspects of the agencies interviewed. The services were rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being "no impact" and 5 being "significant impact." These trainings have helped to build agency staff’s skills by allowing them to discuss a wide range of HIV-related issues informatively and intelligently. Trainings also have affected other factors such as increased comfort level, staff energy and excitement, and individual attitude adjustments. Consequently, providers have been able to offer higher quality services to their clients.

Over half of all respondents specifically cited HIFY’s Three Day Training (Youth and the HIV Antibody Test) as the service which had the most useful, lasting impact. Agencies have come to rely on its accessibility, professionalism, and youth focus. In addition, attending and participating in the 1997 National AIDS Update Conference’s (NAUC) Youth Track workshops — which HIFY coordinated — was described as an empowering experience that fostered "youth-adult partnerships," allowed youth staff to gain crucial planning and public-speaking skills, and boosted their self-confidence and self-esteem. Both the Three Day Training and the NAUC Youth Track workshops markedly improved inter-agency collaboration by establishing ongoing relationships, referrals, consultations, and alliances.

In addition to very positive responses regarding HIFY’s trainings, technical assistance was praised for being accessible, program-specific, and highly personal. All of the participants who had utilized HIFY’s technical assistance found it to be fundamental in helping their agencies improve services, train staff, assist clients better, and generally achieve their goals.

For more information, contact Ron Henderson at Health Initiatives for Youth, 1242 Market Street, Third Floor, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415.487.5777 (phone). The full HIFY Agency Impact Assessment report is also available for download.

SPNS/Fax is produced by The Measurement Group–PROTOTYPES Evaluation and Dissemination Center (EDC). Editorial comments should be made to The Measurement Group at 5811A Uplander Way, Culver City, California 90230, 310.216.1051, 310.670.7735 (fax).
 

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