Kensington Research Institute

Project Aquarius

So named because it represented "the dawning of a new age of treatment services," Project Aquarius was a health-related, community-based outreach, education, and intervention project supported by funds from the government of the District of Columbia. It provided services from 1993 until 1996, by which time the project had served more than 3,000 persons. Project Aquarius’ mission was to provide much-needed health services to people residing in the most economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods in Washington, DC. To accomplish this mission, each week, Project Aquarius staff members brought a large mobile vehicle (akin to a Winnebago) curbside to two or three selected spots in the District of Columbia. The mobile vehicle remained in each locale for one or two days, returned to that locale the following week on those same days to provide post-test counseling and follow-up services and referrals, and then moved to new locations elsewhere in the District of Columbia where its services were needed.

Once at the selected locale, staff members conducted street outreach to inform local residents about the project and what it was trying to accomplish, and invited them to visit the vehicle to avail themselves of its array of services. Once there, people were offered free HIV counseling and testing, free counseling and testing for other sexually transmitted diseases, information about substance use/abuse, referrals to drug abuse treatment programs, and referrals to other community services (e.g., low-cost physicians, parenting or family planning clinics, mental health providers, domestic violence providers, residential shelters) as needed. While visiting the Project Aquarius mobile vehicle and taking part in its educational and intervention services, people were given a hot, home-cooked meal, a comfortable (i.e., heated in the wintertime and air conditioned in the summertime) resting place, and offered free (used, donated) clothing if they wanted or needed it.

In 1995 and 1996, KRI staff collaborated with the Project Aquarius outreach team members and project director to develop an evaluation design, to determine the extent to which the program was achieving its goals and who was benefiting most/least from its services. A brief, easily administered assessment instrument was designed so that a variety of potential outcomes could be measured. These included, among others: entry into a drug treatment program, completion of a substance abuse treatment program, drug usage (amount, frequency, type), HIV serostatus, sexually transmitted disease serostatus, sexual risk behavior practices, seeking counseling for mental health problems, and participating in ongoing HIV intervention/education projects in the community.