The HIV Services Program at The Shanti Project offers non-judgmental, harm-reduction-based, free support services to people living with HIV, and their services include client advocacy, care coordination, emotional support, health education, and isolation-reducing programming. After collaborating on several projects in the past, Shanti reached out to Facente Consulting to facilitate a process to develop promotional materials to educate clients and referring providers about Shanti’s services.
Facente Consulting first worked to figure out the root of the problem Shanti was trying to solve by developing promotional materials, through guided discussions with the HIV Services Program management team and interviews with program staff members. This led us to identify an uptick in inappropriate referrals being made from providers, leading to dissatisfied clients who felt their needs were not being adequately met. To address this, Facente Consulting designed new promotional materials that could be used to educate providers about Shanti’s programs, and a separate set of materials for clients to help manage expectations of what they would receive at Shanti. To close out the project we produced a final report which highlighted internal and external factors that Shanti staff had identified as contributers to the problem of inappropriate referrals, and recommendations about how Shanti management could address those concerns beyond simply disseminating the promotional materials.