Massachusetts: Fenway Health -- New Building, Classic Message

Though it relocated to a new, upgraded home on March 30, Fenway Health continues its mission of providing quality health care for underserved communities, namely the LGBT population.

President Dr. Stephen Boswell views the 10-story, 100,000-square foot building at 1340 Boylston St. as "a symbol of our community." "It's the largest building built by any organization with 'LGBT' in its mission statement anywhere in the world," he said. The organization's former setting was a crowded 19,000-square-foot brownstone.

Fenway Health serves some 13,000 patients, of whom 1,300 are HIV-positive. In 1981, it was one of the first medical organizations to lead a community-based response to the emerging epidemic. "Many providers of health care were not that interested" in seeing HIV/AIDS patients, noted Boswell.

From the start, HIV prevention has been a chief goal of Fenway Health. "We saw on a daily basis the ravages of an epidemic unchecked and we had the desire to play a meaningful role in the prevention of the carnage," said Boswell. "[Prevention] is a key piece of what we do," he said.

In 1994, the organization was selected by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases as one of eight sites that recruited participants for the first clinical trials of an HIV vaccine. It is currently one of only three US sites working on the first pre-exposure prophylaxis study conducted among men who have sex with men.

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