Women RISE (Risk Identification, Strategies and Empowerment), a five-year grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was a collaboration between CAB Health & Recovery Services, Inc. and the Institute for Health & Recovery (IHR). This project provided HIV (Hepatitis C & Sexually Transmitted Infections) Comprehensive Risk Reduction Counseling and Care Coordination for women in the Northeast region of Massachusetts. Women RISE engaged women at very high risk for HIV infection, who were homeless and living in family shelters, or who were identified through various agencies street outreach programs and adult substance abuse treatment programs.
Poor and disenfranchised women are at a high risk of HIV infection in Massachusetts. According to Massachusetts Department of Public Health HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program, as of July 2002, there were 591 women with HIV/AIDS in the Northeast Massachusetts Health Surveillance Region, representing almost one third (31%) of seropositve individuals living in the Northeast part of the state. Black and Hispanic women, who comprise 5% and 21% of the Northeast area population, represented 25% and 35% respectively among those who were seropositive. Heterosexual sex and presumed heterosexual sex together represent approximately 62% of the mode of exposure, with 31% having been exposed by participating in IDU. While these statistics represent known HIV status, many women choose not to get tested for HIV while remaining at high risk of infection. It was our hope that by expanding and strengthening HIV prevention to homeless and high risk women, we participated in reducing infection rates, assisted women who wanted to be tested, and addressed the needs of women who were or became HIV seropositve.
Women RISE identified women through two components: Homeless mothers and women living and working on the streets. Homeless mothers, modeled after IHR’s Project RISE, were engaged by working closely with the all of the emergency family shelters contracted by Department of Transitional Assistance in the Northeast, and Department of Public Health/F.O.R. Families, a home visiting program providing safety net assessment and referral services for families living in emergency shelters. Mothers living in residential treatment programs in the Northeast region were also referred. In addition, high-risk women living and working on the streets were referred to the project through various street outreach programs, adult emergency shelters as well as single adult women participating in substance abuse treatment programs in the region.
Women RISE was family-focused, consumer empowering, culturally relevant, and gender-specific in its support of participating women and their families. In addition to reducing risk of HIV infection and linking HIV seropositve women to services, the project was also committed to addressing other issues related to HIV risk including untreated mental health disorders, trauma symptoms, substance use including intravenous drug use, and ongoing domestic violence. Women RISE worked to increase interagency collaboration.
Project offices were sited at CAB Health & Recovery’s administrative offices in Danvers.
JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc. conducted the evaluation on this project.