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About HIFY
Mission
History
Overview of Programs
Community Partners
Contact Us
Meet HIFY's Staff
Meet HIFY's Board of Directors
Employment and Volunteer Opportunities
download the PDF of our latest annual report
Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of young people by empowering them through education, advocacy and leadership opportunities.
Bay Area youth are faced with a multitude of decisions every day that affect their health — decisions about sex, substance use and relationships are just a few. There are many options for these youth, ranging from those that involve extreme risk to no risk at all. So how do they make those decisions? Well, according to young people, their top three sources of information are their friends, the media and good old-fashioned experimentation.
This is where HIFY comes in. We strive to reduce the risks by helping young people understand safer options and adopt healthy behaviors. We treat youth as individuals, with the right and the power to make informed choices and lead healthy lives. Only young people know their personal life experiences and health needs, and HIFY coaches them to become their own health advocates. At the same time, we teach other organizations and communities to listen to young people and support them as they seek to live healthy lives.
HIFY believes...
...youth have the right to ask difficult questions and expect real answers.
...youth have the right to have good friends, get a great education, feel safe, and be healthy.
...youth have the right to expect the most from friends, teachers, doctors, coaches, counselors, and parents!
HIFY was founded in 1992 by a team of health care and youth service professionals in response to the immediate need for HIV prevention, treatment, and care for young people in San Francisco. Some of our achievements from the 1990s include: creating two youth publications (a zine and a resource manual) for youth living with HIV, offering four HIV-specific trainings to youth service providers, and developing an HIV-positive speakers bureau to help educate young people about the disease.
Around the turn of the century, HIFY began to look at the broader context of the lives of young people, as well as the supports and opportunities available to them. Now we view HIV from a more holistic point of view, addressing many of the co-factors that put people at greater risk for infection. Because HIV is one of a broad matrix of interconnected health issues confronting youth, HIFY has expanded its services to address more risks to healthy development faced by young men and women, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. In the process, we have acquired a wealth of experience on how best to serve a richly diverse community of young people.
HIFY creates publications and resource materials and facilitates workshops and trainings for youth and the providers that work with them on a variety of youth and health topics, such as body image, sexuality, STDs and HIV, substance use, self-esteem and mental health, relationships, and violence.
The core of our work is with youth. HIFY believes youth are their own best advocates. Therefore, they need clear and complete information. We provide this information through workshops, survival guides, and our Peer Education Team.
HIFY believes that youth and adults in partnership create opportunity and community. The adults in this partnership need on-going support and training. Therefore, we provide them with trainings, inservices and provider's guides.
HIFY believes that communities must work together to change the system and improve lives. We provide leadership within the community to create collaborations, assess youth needs and concerns, and facilitate discussions and information-sharing throughout the community. To this end, we sit on several community boards and councils.
All of our work is done in partnership with other community members. We bring our work to community centers, schools, clinics, and afterschool programs who are working daily with youth. Some of our key partners are listed below:
Dimensions Clinic for Queer and Questioning Youth
at Castro Mission Health Center
call 415-487-7589 for more information
Adolescent Health Working Group
323 Geary Street, Suite 418
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-576-1170
Fax: 415-576-1286
Email: info@ahwg.net
www.ahwg.net
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