Since 1971, Fenway Health has been working to make life healthier for the people in our neighborhood, the LGBTQIA+ community, people living with HIV/AIDS and the broader population. Fenway was founded in 1971 as part of the free clinic movement by students who believed that health care should be a right, not a privilege.
The mission of Fenway Health is to enhance the wellbeing of the LGBTQIA+ community and all people in our neighborhoods and beyond through access to the highest quality health care, education, research and advocacy.
In 2001, Fenway launched The Fenway Institute, an interdisciplinary center for research, training, education and policy development focusing on national and international health issues, especially related to LGBTQIA+ communities.
In 2010, Fenway welcomed the Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center into the Fenway family. The Borum serves teens and young adults ages 12-29, and is a safe place for at-risk youth, including LGBTQIA+ young people, homeless teens and young adults, those struggling with substance abuse, involved with gangs or doing sex work.
In 2013, the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts also became a part of Fenway Health. AIDS Action serves people living with HIV/AIDS and populations at risk of infection, and leads the states Getting To Zero Coalition, which seeks to reduce the number of HIV infections to zero. It also operates a needle exchange that serves as an entry point to healthcare services for active substance users.
Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.
Motivated by the belief that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, politically active area residents and politicians open a one-day-a-week drop-in center in the basement of a building owned by the Christian Science Church. The center is staffed by volunteer medical students dedicated to serving the diverse Fenway neighborhooda neighborhood that includes many seniors, gays, low-income residents, and students. Reflecting this mission, the founders name the center Fenway Community Health Center.
Health care providers in New York and San Francisco begin observing a pattern of cancer-like symptoms among gay men. The National Center for Disease Control names the syndrome Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID).
Fenways Board of Directors creates an ad hoc committee charged with developing a series of AIDS Forums to address the medical and psychosocial implications of AIDS. The committee later evolves into the independent Boston AIDS Action Committee.
Collaborating with Harvard Medical School, Fenway becomes one of the first medical facilities in the US to culture HIV from blood and semen samples. This project marks the beginning of a long-term collaborative relationship with both the medical school and Harvards School of Public Health.
Fenways Victim Recovery Project, later known as the Violence Recovery Program (VRP), established. Data collected from the program plays a significant role in efforts to pass the statewide Gay Rights Law and Hate Crimes Statistics Act.
Upon completion, Fenways garden is dedicated as Goosebump Parka reference to the one-woman show Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universein honor of Lily Tomlins and Jane Wagners continued support.
Medical Research Director Dr. Ken Mayer announces Fenways distinction as one of eight national sites chosen to conduct HIV vaccine trials. Also pictured are Executive Director Deborah Ruhe and Medical Director Dr. Stephen Boswell.
Fenway convenes panel of experts to brief members of the press about the historic significance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services implementing new objectives related to sexual orientation in their public health plan Healthy People 2010.
Fenway launches The Fenway Institute, a national interdisciplinary center dedicated to ensuring cultural competence in health care for the GLBT community through research and evaluation, training and education, and policy and advocacy. Dr. Ken Mayer and Dr. Judith Bradford named co-chairs of The Fenway Institute.
In an effort to help medical providers better understand the unique health care needs of gay and bisexual men, Fenway publishes Preventing and Managing STDs in MSM: A Toolkit for Clinicians, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health STD Division.
Fenway Community Health breaks ground in Bostons West Fens neighborhood for its future home. The 10-story, 100,000 square foot facility will be the largest LGBTQIA+ health care, education and research facility in the nation when complete in 2009.
The Fenway Institute works with the American College of Physicians to publishThe Fenway Guide to LGBT Health, the first American medical textbook to address the specific healthcare needs of LGBT people.
The Fenway Institute is the first community-based organization to be funded by the National Institutes of Health as a Population Research Center on LGBT Health. This represents an acknowledgment by the federal government of LGBT people as a unique population with specific health risks and disparities.
Fenways South End practice moves to expanded space on the second floor of The Pledge of Allegiance Building at 142 Berkeley Street and adds womens health providers, Behavioral Health services and a Pharmacy.
On March 30, the doors open on Fenways new 1340 Boylston Street home. The 10 story, 100,000 square foot facility is the largest building ever constructed by an organization with a specific mission to serve the LGBT community. The new facility allows Fenway to expand its medical and behavioral health departments and pharmacy and to add family dentistry and eye care services. In addition, Fenways Womens Health program is given dedicated space on the buildings third floor.
The Sidney Borum, Jr. Health Center joins the Fenway Health family on July 1, 2010. The Borum operates as part of Fenway Health with the mission of serving marginalized and disenfranchised young people, including those who are LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender); homeless or living on the streets; struggling with substance use or abuse; sex workers; or living with HIV/AIDS.
In November, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publishes the results of the iPrex study which shows that pre-exposure use of HIV medications helps protect gay and bisexual men and transgender women from HIV infection. The Fenway Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Ken Mayer, is one of only two United States study sites and Dr. Mayer is one of the authors of the NEJM article on the study. The study involved 2,499 people in 6 countries on four continents and the study findings were some of the most exciting news in the battle against HIV in many years, receiving widespread coverage in the world press.
Fenway reopens former 16 Haviland Street space as Fenway: Sixteen, the new home of Fenways HIV Counseling, Testing & Referrals Program, Health Navigation Services, Helplines, and gay and bisexual mens health programs.
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts becomes part of the Fenway family once again, allowing the two organizations to work more closely together, improving delivery of care and services to people living with HIV/AIDS, and strengthening advocacy, prevention and research efforts.
Carl Sciortino, former Massachusetts State Representative, becomes Executive Director of AIDS Action Committee after the successful tenure of Rebecca Haag. Sciortino is the first person living with HIV to lead AAC since its founding in 1982.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issue recommendations on the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for preventing HIV infection. Fenway Health is strongly supportive of the use of PrEP, and biomedical research at The Fenway Institute was instrumental in gaining approval of this crucial new tool in the fight against HIV.
The Center for Population Research in LGBT Health, a program of The Fenway Institute led by Judith Bradford, PhD, hosts the first meeting of the groundbreaking Bisexual Research Collaborative on Health. National experts and activists in bisexual health research and advocacy convene at Fenways Ansin Building to set an agenda for cutting-edge collaboration in this understudied field.
The Fenway Institute partners with AIDS United and AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin to launch the countrys first National Center for Innovation in HIV Care. Funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the three partners will travel the country to share best practices for HIV care and prevention with community health centers, AIDS service organizations and other community-based organizations.
The Fenway Institute publishes results from the Project VOICE survey of transgender Massachusetts residents, showing that nearly two-thirds had experienced discrimination in public accommodations, including restaurants, public transportation and health care settings.
The Fenway Institute publishes Our Health Matters: Mental Health, Risk and Resilience Among LGBTQ Youth of Color Who Live, Work or Play in Boston. The report draws important attention to the higher risks of victimization, suicidality, substance abuse, homelessness and HIV infection faced by these young people.
Fenways National LGBT Health Education Center holds a first-of-its kind medical conference focused on transgender health. That same year, more than 2,300 transgender patients receive care at Fenway Health.
The LGBT Aging Project works closely with the states Special Legislative Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Aging to publish a report recommending large-scale reforms that will improve the lives of Massachusetts LGBT elder adults.
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission names Fenway: South End the first practice in the state to achieve Patient-Centered Medical Home PRIME Certification for integrating behavioral health in primary medical care.
BOSTON, June 10, 2021The Fenway Health Board of Directors has unanimously approved a strategic plan to guide the work of the organization over the next five years. The strategic plan is centered around a Racial Equity Action Plan that was also unanimously adopted and affirmed by the Board.