An evaluation of an employment assistance program focused on people living with HIV in Toronto, Canada

Figures & data

Table 1. Results from descriptive and bivariate analyses.

Variables	Groups	Retained Job (N: 50)	Did Not Retain Job (N: 81)	Total N (%)	Proportion after excluding the missing value (%)	Statistics^a
Sociodemographic Variables
Gender^b	Female	5	10	15 (11.5%)	11.5%	p-value = 0.8654
	Male	45	69	114 (87.0%)	87.7%
	Trans woman	0	1	1 (0.8%)	0.8%
	Missing	0	1	1 (0.8%)	-
Ethnicity^c	Person of color	27	28	55 (42%)	46.2%	Chi-squared: 2.6447
	White	22	42	64 (48.9%)	53.8%	Df: 1
	Missing	1	11	12 (9.2%)		p-value = 0.1039
Sexual Orientation		29	45	74 (56.5%)	89.2%	N/A
	Heterosexual	4	5	9 (6.9%)	10.8%
	Missing	17	31	48 (36.6%)	-
Immigration Status	Citizen or permanent resident	17	36	53 (40.5%)	82.8%	N/A
	Other	5	6	11 (8.4%)	17.2%
	Missing	28	39	67 (51.1%)	-
Housing Situation	Stable housing	36	50	86 (65.6%)	90.5%	N/A
	Unstable housing	1	8	9 (6. 9%)	9.5%
	Missing	13	23	36 (27.5%)	-
Education Level	K-12	4	6	10 (7.6%)	20.8%	N/A
	Post-Secondary	12	26	38 (29.0%)	79.2%
	Missing	34	49	83 (63.4%)	-
Age (Continuous)^d	Mean (SD)	40.7 (9.34)	41.4 (9.51)	41.2 (9.4)	-	t = 0.40383 df = 105.58
	Missing	0	1	1 (0.8%)	-	p-value = 0.6872
First Language^c	English	24	36	60 (45.8%)	46.9%	Chi-squared = 0.83825
	Non-English	24	44	68 (51.9%)	53.1%	df = 1
	Missing	2	1	3 (2.3%)	-	p-value = 0.3599
Health-related Variables
Length of Diagnosis (Continuous)	Mean (SD)	12.8 (7.54)	9.53 (7.27)	10.9 (7.5)	-	N/A
	Missing	24	43	67 (51.1%)	-
On Medication	No	8	16	24 (18.3%)	27.6%	N/A
	Yes	25	38	63 (48.1%)	72.4%
	Missing	17	27	44 (33.6%)	-

^aStatistical test was only conducted if missing values were less than 10% and missing values were excluded from the test; ^bstatistical test used was Fisher’s exact test; ^cstatistical test used was Chi-square test; ^dstatistical test used was Student’s t-test.

Table 2. Example quotes from the qualitative interviews.

Quote Number	Themes	Descriptions	Quotes
1	Facilitators to effective program delivery	A participant shared her thoughts surrounding the benefits of EACT and the associated case-workers	“He has been very, very, very, very helpful cause well he helped me a lot with regards to interviewing techniques and job coaching and resumes, anything and all of that so the experiences were very, very good.” [Female, 40–55]
2	Facilitators to effective program delivery	A participant described an example of employment-related assistance he received from the EACT staff	“Oh yes, I have my resume they, I sent to my case worker and he found the other people who help to you know improve it, yeah.” [Male, 40–55]
3	Facilitators to effective program delivery	A participant described an example of non-employment related assistance she received from the EACT staff	“I think it was a blessing that I really found out about Employment ACTion because they’ve really helped me to you know to go and to achieve my goals and he also helped me with suggestions with regards to housing and when to start looking for housing and different areas to look for and who to connect to.” [Female, 40–55]
4	Facilitators to effective program delivery	A participant explained how the EACT staff was helpful in overcoming personal barriers in attaining employment.	“My first counselor there he was had really good rapport … It was less about whether I was capable of working but it was more the mental issues that I was having like difficulty being around people like if it was up to me I wouldn’t … I said I need you to push me cause I won’t do it otherwise.” [Male, 40–55]
5	Facilitators to effective program delivery	A participant explained how the EACT staff was helpful in overcoming personal barriers in attaining employment.	“I think they gave me the confidence to do it you know and then through that I was able to find a job.” [Male, 26–39]
6	Barriers to effective program delivery	A participant expressed their disappointment when they were advised to use general job searching strategies.	“I mean like are you nuts like you know and sending me to job fair? I mean I can find jobs fair everywhere like I went a couple of them like it is a charade.” [Male 40–55]
7	Barriers to effective program delivery	Barriers to effective program delivery	Barriers to effective program delivery
8	Barriers to effective program delivery	Barriers to effective program delivery	Barriers to effective program delivery
9	Recommendations for future employment services	A participant explained the lack of the PLWH working at EACT.	“I went there and the guy was like oh, we have people that can help and I asked them are they living, person who lived with, with living and he said no, but they know about it and no, it won’t work.” [Male 26–39]
10	Recommendations for future employment services	A participant explained how having a PLWH as EACT staff could be helpful for the clients.	“I think that’s the beautiful thing about ACT so I don’t have to tell them before they already know [your HIV status] because that’s why they are there; right, and if I am correct like 97, 95 percent of the people that work there [have HIV] so I don’t have, that part, there’s no idea in my mind that okay, oh, he’s judging me, he’s judging me so that part is not there.” [Male, 40–55]