The themes for each of the participants were abstracted from their stories, which in turn were crafted from their interviews. Their themes seem for the most part idiosyncratic and reflect the individual participants’ personal philosophies and ways of coping with life. The most apparent commonality among the young people who shared their stories was their lack of a stable home. The New York City Department of Health reported that 56% of women with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the city had contracted Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) by intravenous drug use. The highest transmission category for women in the city is sex with men who are infected with HIV, comprising 30% of women with AIDS. The rates for diagnosed cases of AIDS among adults on the Lower East Side is 2.5% and in the South Bronx it is 2.6%. Both these rates are well above the city’s already high average of 1.5% of the adult population, as of April, 1997.