See It: The Community being helped

Project SAFE is a multidisciplinary effort to test whether brief motivational interviewing in an emergency department setting may encourage change in sex behaviors and thus prevent gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV among male and female patients aged 18-44 years who use heroin and/or crack/cocaine and are not in treatment. The brief motivation interview is designed to facilitate a conversation to illicit a self-determined commitment to changes in behavior by intravenous drug users to reduce the individual's risk for contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Along with health education, the individuals who come to Project SAFE are provided with a follow-up interview at 6 months and one year after the initial brief motivational interview.

I started working with Project Safe while completing my Masters in Public Health at Boston University. I found value in the work done at Project SAFE because it reaches a vulnerable population that is vilify and marginalized. As a woman of color, I appreciate the struggles the come with belonging to a disenfranchised population, and find it particularly fulfilling to work for an organization to tries to improve the quality of life for a such an exceptionally high risk population.