Moment #16: 2002 - Chicago House premiers first prevention program

Prevention with Positives, Chicago House’s first comprehensive HIV prevention initiative, was a pioneering effort to link HIV care services with ongoing HIV education and prevention programs. Made possible by a $2.5 million dollar five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention with Positives was a peer-to-peer prevention campaign that equipped individuals living with HIV to share prevention education with others in their communities. The program’s focus on harm reduction practices for individuals living with HIV eventually shifted to reaching HIV-negative individuals, giving shape to the primary focus of our current Prevention program. Today, Chicago House’s HOPE (Health, Outreach, Prevention, and Education) program conducts extensive outreach across the city, providing HIV/STI screening, case management, connection to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis, a once-a-day pill that is 99% effective against sexual HIV transmission) and PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), and more.