STAY Mission
Extending a helping hand to young people
Young people--especially those at-risk for or living with HIV--need a place where they feel understood by their health care providers and are free to address medical and psychosocial problems without fear of being judged or condemned. They need a medical “home” staffed by a family of health care professionals with specialized training in adolescent care and a passion for delivering cultural- and age-appropriate services to young people.
Project STAY incorporates these principles into its mission, and because of it we are proud to be referred to as one of New York City’s best clinical havens for young people. Based in Harlem, Project STAY welcomes youth from the Bronx to Staten Island, providing sensitive and supportive HIV counseling and testing to high-risk youth as well as comprehensive medical, psychosocial and case management services to young people living with HIV.
Our Service Delivery Model
To avoid stigmatizing youth, Project STAY weaves counseling, testing and treatment services into the fabric of health care delivery in an ambulatory care setting that provides a wide variety of primary care and family planning services for both young men and women. Young people can walk through our doors and get help with problems ranging from AIDS to Zits.
Project STAY embraces a client-centered model which strives to identify each patient’s assets as well as risks. A thorough assessment is made of each client and strategies are developed to reinforce areas of strength, while addressing health- compromising behaviors. Project STAY’s interdisciplinary staff meet weekly to review client cases. Emphasis is placed on cooperation as a team to deliver individual- tailored and holistic services.
General primary care and family planning services are delivered to young people by The Young Adult Clinic, the Family Planning Clinic and the Young Men’s Clinic under the auspices of the The Center for Community Health and Education. The clinic is open Monday-Friday located in Washington Heights, at 21 Audobon Avenue on the corner of 166th Street., Specific services for high-risk and HIV positive youth are available through Project STAY on Monday afternoons and Friday mornings,, but special arrangements can be made to accommodate clients needing appointments at other times. Additionally, clients requiring case management and psychosocial services can be seen (Tuesday-Thursday) at our Harlem office located at 215 West 125th Street.
Project STAY is funded by the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute
and is affiliated with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Harlem Health Promotion Center and the The Center for Community Health and Education), as well as New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Ambulatory Care Network Corporation.
The Project STAY Pledge
All young people, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, culture, education, and mental or physical ability, have basic sexual and reproductive health rights. We pledge to honor a young person’s right to:
- comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information;
- access health services that are not expensive;
- privacy during examinations and treatment;
- respect in our clinics;
- be given explanations of all examinations and treatment;
- be treated by people who are trained in adolescent health;
- receive information so that they can make their own choices whether or not to have sex, when to have sex, and with whom to have sex; and
- a healthy and safe environment.
