ViiV Healthcare, a pharmaceutical company specializing in HIV treatment and care, has announced six new grantees for its Positive Action for Youth program, an initiative that aims to help youth living with HIV successfully transition into adult care. Each organization will be awarded up to $100,000 per year for over the next two years.

According to a ViiV Healthcare press release, five of the organizations are developing or expanding existing mentorship programs that support youth between 13 and 24. The other organization will lead the design and facilitation of a toolkit and guide about youth mentorship best practices.

The 2017 Positive Action for Youth grantees include:

  • Abounding Prosperity, Inc. – Dallas: Support for programs at the LGBT nonprofit that provides HIV programs and services. This community center, in a mostly Black neighborhood, was recently destroyed by arson.

  • Advocates for Youth – Washington, DC: Support to build and disseminate a toolkit and guide in collaboration with Direct Mentorship Services grantees to address topics for youth living with HIV entering adult care. Potential topics include: social determinants of health, unique issues and concerns of the youth experience, meaningful youth-adult partnerships and youth-centric models used by the non-HIV community to support youth living with HIV in entering an adult standard of care.

  • AIDS Alabama – Living Out Loud, Birmingham: Support to pilot a mentoring project for youth ages 13 to 24 living with HIV. The mentors will provide support in medical adherence, self-advocacy, financial planning skills and job or college readiness while increasing access to transportation, mental health services and housing assistance.

  • Center on Halsted – Positive Directions, Chicago: Support to pilot three six-week drop-in sessions for youth living with HIV aged 13 to 24. The program will train Youth Health Promoters to develop and manage the drop-in sessions, which will focus on helping youth develop the self-management skills needed to engage and stay in long-term adult care. 

  • National AIDS Education and Services for Minorities – nSPIRE, Atlanta: Support for an existing one-on-one mentoring project for African-American MSM living with HIV ages 16 to 24. The mentors will focus on positive living, engaging in care and achieving life goals by providing ongoing support, insights, guidance and access to resources, including mental health services. 

  • RAIN, Inc. – Empowering Positive Youth, Charlotte, North Carolina: Support for the expansion and enhancement of a tiered mentoring project for youth living with HIV ages 13 to 24. Peer navigators will mentor youth navigators in development skills, while the youth navigators will mentor a small group of youth leaders to better serve youth living with HIV to enter and engage in their care. 

“Youth remain disproportionately impacted by HIV and that needs to change,” said Positive Action for Youth External Review Committee member Justin Rush, JD, in the press release. “I’m confident that the grantees selected through will address unmet needs that will have sustainable impact in the lives of youth living with HIV and their communities.”

Click here to read about the fire intentionally started at the Abounding Prosperity’s community center.