ADAM TENNER - METRO TEENAIDS - INTERVIEW

Headquartered in a basement along Pennsylvania Avenue SE, nearly
spitting distance from the Capitol, the drop-in center and offices of
Metro TeenAIDS (MTA) are very unassuming. The art on the walls is
created by clients, using mixed media of personal photos, condoms,
glue and motivational messages. The furniture is mismatched,
threadbare in spots, yet comfortable. During a rainy, midweek lunch
hour, the mood is upbeat. HIV may kill people, but it hasn't managed
to kill youthful enthusiasm. Advertisement . Page Continued

Initially launched in 1988 as the Washington Area Consortium on HIV
Infection in Youth, MTA has been battling HIV/AIDS in D.C.'s youth
community for 17 years. Today, estimates point to 2,500 to 3,500
HIV-positive young people in the D.C. metro area, according to MTA.
Further, possibly a third of those are unaware of their status.

While the lines of communication from adults to young people are
often muddled, when it comes to HIV, communication with youth is
literally a matter of life and death. Tenner

Though recent cuts in federal funding from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) forced MTA to dismiss three outreach
employees, the organization soldiers on, offering a drop-in center,
peer education and HIV testing.

Adam Tenner, MTA's executive director, took time out to talk about
HIV in D.C. as it relates to the 13-to-24-year-old community they serve.

METRO WEEKLY: Do the programs at Metro TeenAIDS delve much into
issues dealing with men who have sex with men (MSM)? It seems you
walk a delicate line between trying to disseminate information and
not alienating young males who may have sex with other males, but
eschew a "gay" identity.

ADAM TENNER: It is a delicate balance. We actually serve a really
high number of heterosexual African-American men as well. And
heterosexual African-American young women. We try to make sure that
our language is always very neutral, because we don't always know
what people's behavior is unless they tell us.

We're always trying to be mindful of how to improve our services for
young MSM. At the moment, we probably do a better job reaching the
non-gay identified than the gay-identified young people.

MW: Do you see large numbers of transgender youth?

TENNER: No, but we've helped to put on some citywide transgender
youth events, like Transgender Boot Camp. That brought together about
90 transgender young folks to talk about their issues [and]
HIV-prevention issues. We did that in coalition with a lot of other
organizations.

We'll partner with the Latin American Youth Center, Concerned Black
Men, Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, Children's National
Medical Center. It's a really wide range.

MW: Who are your typical clients?

TENNER: Most of our kids come from the lowest third of the incomes in
the city. HIV-infected youth tend to be some of the most
disenfranchised. The kids who come to this center tend to be mostly
from Potomac Gardens and other places in the neighborhood, or
Anacostia. But our school programs hit a much wider swath of young people.

We primarily focus on the district. When I got here four years ago,
we had programs in Maryland and Virginia that weren't doing very
well. So we decided to focus here in the district because there is
such a huge epidemic, and we want to make sure that district youth
are being served.

We have an eye to Prince George's County, which, for youth in
general, has very few services. I think what we'll see in the next
few years is the epidemic moving to P.G. County as more folks move
out to the suburbs.

MW: Are the majority of youth that use the MTA drop-in center HIV-positive?

TENNER: It's a mix.

MW: As the executive director of MTA, what do you see when you look
at the district?

TENNER: Oy. Getting to services in the District of Columbia is like
getting around in the District of Columbia. You can start on a grid,
but find out that U Street ends -- and starts again somewhere else.
Or that a one-block street exists that doesn't pick up anywhere else.
You're constantly hitting circles and angled streets, and it takes a
long time to realize that a seemingly indirect path might be the
shortest, most effective path. It may be the only path to go where
you want to go. I think it's a very difficult system to navigate.

That said, I feel very hopeful right now about lots of changes that
are happening with the schools under the leadership of the new
superintendent of the school board. They were able to pass a number
or resolutions to try to improve HIV prevention and education, HIV
services to D.C. public-school youth.

MW: The "system" you're talking about, do you mean for a youth who is
positive and trying to access services? Or for someone seeking
HIV-prevention information? Or of bureaucracies at the city or federal level?

TENNER: I think that our city systems fail young people, and have
consistently been failing young people in a number of ways. We do
have some wonderful services, but in the capital of the richest
country in the world, the fact that we have the highest HIV rate in
the country is shameful and disheartening. We have young people not
necessarily understanding that they're really at risk for HIV. We
have young people who don't seem to even know the basic facts about
HIV. We have young people who don't believe their lives are worthy of
avoiding HIV. They believe they're going to get shot walking down the
street to 7-11. That's a far greater, more real risk to them than a
disease that might get them sick 10 years down the road.

And a level of stigma exists that young people end up getting
disconnected from their families. In general, young people tend to
not like to go to the doctor. Young people who are sexually active,
studies show, are even less likely [to visit a doctor] because they
fear having to pay for something, or having to tell the doctor
something that might get back to their family.

These are the sorts of barriers that are set up that are systemic and
cultural for young people not getting what they need. You have to
give people not just the information, but you have to give them the
skills they need to protect themselves from HIV. You have to work
with them on believing that their lives are worth not getting HIV. We
actually spend a lot of time and programming talking to people about,
"What do you want to be doing? Where is your life going?"

In our city, we have a lot of young people that we work with who
graduate from high school with no direction, no plan for the future,
and no adult pushing them toward what they want to do. Those kids
grow up into adults.

MW: Talk a little bit about some of the young people you work with.

TENNER: We had one very young guy at our drop-in center. His only
goal was to be the first person in his family to graduate from high
school without getting arrested or getting someone pregnant.

Recently, we did a go-go event. We had over 200 kids come. A
hundred-plus got tested [for HIV]. We tested a young, 15-year-old
African-American girl who tested positive. She had no idea that she
was going to test positive. She was completely blindsided. She's
getting connected to medical care now.

We have a whole program that exists to work with young people who are
newly infected. It's a very time-sensitive process. The early stages
are really crucial. The conversation about HIV isn't the first
conversation. The first conversation is about building trust.
It'sabout processing what's going on with them, in terms of
processing grief and loss in terms of HIV. Ultimately, it's about
helping them get to their appointments and being able to advocate for
themselves in the system and getting -- and staying connected -- to care.

Most of the kids who test positive are some of the most
disenfranchised kids in the city. They're unstably housed, with
non-supportive families. They're outcast from churches. Whatever
their social support systems are, they're usually outside of them.
For them, HIV is not even the most important issue in their lives.

MW: Despite having the job you have, which would depress a lot of
people, you seem to be remarkably optimistic.

TENNER: One of the joys of working in Washington, D.C., is that every
little change that you can makes seems like a huge triumph. Though
that's a somewhat sad statement to make.

MW: But you say it with a smile.

TENNER: I do, and I mean it. We take our young people down to the
City Council and they testify, and it means something. Last week, I
met with the Health Department and the schools and talked to City
Council members, and I could feel like the possibility for change
really exists. And our job as Metro TeenAIDS is to make sure that
systems open up to really serve these young people. We're committed
to the fight.

We currently have 15 to 20 young people who are on staff part-time as
peer educators. We have a young-women-of-color leadership council. We
have groups of young people who do outreach, who are trained to
communicate with their peers and get the message out. When you see
them moved by these issues, really grasping what HIV is doing to
their community and to our entire community, it's much easier to come
to work. They're so hopeful.

The funding loss from the CDC was a catalyst for change at Metro
TeenAIDS, in that my board went through an examination of, "Is this
what we want to be doing now?" The staff, the youth, the board and
myself came back and resoundingly said, "Yes, this is what we want to
be working on." If we're not talking about this, nobody is going to
be talking about this. We have a lot of great allies in the city, but
this is not what they beat on tables about. This is what we beat on
tables about.

MW: Do you have a greater interest than most in the future of HIV's
impact on the city because you work with young people? Does working
with people who have so much of their lives in front of them shift
focus to the future?

TENNER: I think that's true. The HIV epidemic in Washington, D.C. --
especially in wards 7 and 8 -- now looks like sub-Saharan Africa.
There are as many women with AIDS as there are men. This is one of
the few places in the entire country where that's true. Young women
who come [to MTA] are at extremely high risk for HIV infection. That
calls your attention to wondering, well, what is happening in
sub-Saharan Africa? The work forces are being decimated. If you go to
the World Bank, HIV is an economic development issue.

There are implications for all of us. Whether it's our family
members, our lovers, people we care about, city leaders who have to
do planning -- there is a good reason for anyone to get involved in
HIV prevention and in providing good medical care for HIV-infected
citizens of Washington, D.C.

For more info on Metro TeenAIDS and its programs, visit
www.metroteenaids.org or call 202-543-9355.