Connecting Latino and African American Males to Sexual Health Services: An Adaptation of Project Connect

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The purpose of the program is three-fold. First, this project will explore the channels necessary for reaching at-risk African American and Latino adolescent and young adult males in urban settings and particularly YMSM among these populations. Second, this project will build on these findings to adapt and evaluate an existing, efficacious program, the Project Connect Health Systems Intervention [Project Connect traditional] to meet the sexual and reproductive health care needs of these adolescent and young adult males. Other trials of Project Connect have done this by developing active partnerships between settings offering access to at-risk adolescents and community health care providers. Schools provide the reach necessary for broad community impact. However, it is important to determine if reaching at-risk adolescent males may necessitate moving outside of a school setting as well as operating within schools. Maintaining the level of reach necessary for this type of broad community impact outside of the school setting will introduce new complications, challenges, and opportunities, but may be necessary to access those adolescent males at highest risk. Third, many adolescents now interact with information, especially health information, in an online environment. To meet the needs of today’s adolescents, Project Connect must evolve [Project Connect online]. Developing an online, easily modified, easily updated, and portable mechanism for online access to good providers of sexual and reproductive healthcare services is critical to meeting the needs of the target population.

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