Youth

Young people in the United States are at persistent risk for HIV infection. This risk is especially notable for youth of minority races and ethnicities. Continual HIV prevention outreach and education efforts are required as new generations replace the generations that benefited from earlier prevention strategies.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Youth

• 1. Target and tailor programming for sexually active and most-at-risk youth based on pattern of behavior and their needs.
• 2. Provide necessary information and skills building to help youth prepare to make their eventual transition to sexual activity safer and healthier, including delay of sexual debut.
• 3. Work with parents and guardians to help improve communication to youth about their values and expectations regarding adolescent behavior, as well as stressing the importance of monitoring and supervision of their adolescents.
• 4. Engage influential adults within the community to create an enabling environment conducive to the adoption of safer sex behaviors among youth.
• 5. Expand access to community-level prevention programs, including peer outreach, and curriculum-based programs for out-of-school youth.
• 6. Provide or refer sexually active youth to confidential youth HTC (HIV TREATMENT CENTERS), and ensure linkages to care for HIV positive youth.
• 7. Encourage sexually-active youth to learn their HIV status, practice safer sex and reduce their number of sexual partners.
• Provide sexually active young people with risk reduction information and skills building, including access to male and female condoms and information on correct and consistent condom use.
• 8. Prioritize interventions targeting evidence-based prevention, care and treatment for adolescents living with HIV/AIDS in the following areas:
  • a) Measurement: Work with the UN and partner governments to better track the numbers of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) and the coverage of critical HIV services for these populations.
  • b) Prevention: Work with global experts to identify the most effective interventions for preventing new HIV infections in vulnerable adolescent populations and support partner governments to bring them to scale.
  • c) Treatment: Work with partner governments and implementing partners to scale programs that increase access to treatment for ALHIV, and help those currently in pediatric care to effectively transition to adult care.
  • d) Advocacy: Work with UNICEF and other global partners to raise awareness of the needs of ALHIV and vulnerable adolescents, and
  • e) Build commitments to bringing effective programs and interventions to scale.
• 9. GOMOJO is a community resource tool tailored to be accessible and acceptable to younger people and for our community as a whole. We provide comprehensive packages of interventions for highly vulnerable youth and young member of key populations.
• 10. GOMOJO supports, empowers and strategizes structural interventions to reduce young people’s exposure to risk and increase protection.
• 11. GOMOJO strategy strengthens and expands gender-sensitive programs to respond to the unique needs of male and female youth, including addressing harmful gender norms that foster the spread of HIV.
• 12. Evaluate the impact of PEPFAR-(United States Federal Gov) funded youth programs to build a stronger evidence base for these interventions.

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