ENGAGING, EDUCATING AND EMPOWERING Lessons from Vancouvers - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ENGAGING, EDUCATING AND EMPOWERING Lessons from Vancouver’s Mpowerment Project GAY MILLENNIALS

January 11, 2014 #gettingtestedselfie at the HiM clinic. Guys who know their status are #mpowered! @himtweets #peeinacup #hiv #sti #gayboyproblems #gayboysolutions Andrew Shopland – Mpowerment Project Coordinator

OVERVIEW  YouthCO’s Mpowerment Project  Community-Building & Empowerment  Peer Education & Health Promotion  Engagement & Community Organizing

WHAT IS THE MPOWERMENT MODEL? Guiding Principles:  Social Focus  Empowerment Philosophy  Peer Influence of Safer Sex Messages  Multi-Level Approach  Community Building  Diffusion of Innovations

INCREMENTAL ENGAGEMENT Social Events  Formal Outreach  Event Outreach Community Member  Campaigns  Social Media Workshop / Discussion Night  Informal Outreach  Peer to Peer Core Group Member  Engagement at events Facilitator / Mentor

MILLENNIALS?  Generation Y, Echo Boom Generation, iGeneration  For our purposes: Born 1982-2000  Political worldview has been shaped by 9/11, Great Recession, and the rise of tech-enabled social movements  Digital natives: Have always had computers, cellphones and social media  Socially conscious generation. General spirit of support for human rights  Underemployed, and have trouble keeping up with increasing cost of living

GAY MILLENNIALS?  Post-AIDS, Post-Marriage, Post-Gay  Coming out younger  High percentage have experienced bullying  In Canada, marriage equality has always existed  Online sex and dating has always been the norm  Increasing cost of living downtown means most live away from gay villages  Increasingly urban HOWEVER… Also rural  Raised on porn but still not receiving any gay sex education  Want more from the gay community & desire healthier relationships with other gay guys

COMMUNITY Creating spaces for BUILDING healthier and more inclusive communities

AUSTIN’S STORY

IT GOT BETTER?  Communication  Location Based Social Networks (Grindr, Growlr, Hornet, Scruff, etc.)  Wide range of dating and cruising sites (Plenty of Fish, Adam4Adam, Manhunt, Squirt, etc.)  Tolerance  Vancouver Pride is now a Civic Event  GSA/QSAs in schools  Safe to live outside Davie Village  Same-Sex marriage

 Apolitical: discrimination is perpetuated  Highly Sexualized: objectification is the norm  Lacking Intimacy: openness is challenging

WHAT IS MPOWERMENT?

WHAT DO GUYS ACTUALLY WANT? Communication Connection Tolerance Acceptance

HOW DO WE CREATE CONNECTION AND ACCEPTANCE?  Intimacy  Inclusion  Non Sexualized and Sex Positive  Youth Run

PRODUCTION OF SPACE  Henri Lefebvre – La Production de l’espace (1974)  Space is socially constructed based on values and the social production of meanings  This process is fundamental to the reproduction of society “Change life! Change Society! These ideas lose completely their meaning without producing an appropriate space… new social relations demand a new space, and vice-versa .”

SPACE FOR MPOWERMENT  Defined values and expectations  Building container over time  Shared experiences and intimacy  Positive feedback cycle

OUR SPACE

NERDTASTIC

TURKEY TIME

ENHANCING THE RIPPLE  Diffusion of Innovation  Giving the guys skills to develop their personal communities  Event planning  Translating online communication to community  Applied inclusion  Empowerment  Personal and Community

EDUCATION  Goals:  Behaviour change  Knowledge transfer  Diffusion of knowledge  Creation of new community norms  Way easier for this to happen in the container we’ve already built

PEER EDUCATION FOR Adapting principles of peer education for HEALTH PROMOTION young gay men

BROADCASTED INFORMATION

TYPICAL SEX ED…  Lacking relevance  Feeling left out  Feeling judged  Lots of myths and misinformation

PEER EDUCATION  Power in learning from peers  Increased relevance  Increased trust and safety  Removes the traditional hierarchy in education

PEER EDUCATION WORKSHOPS  Acknowledge the skills and knowledge in the room  Allows for two-way discussion, clarification of ideas and information  Increases relevance  Allows for exploration of all the “Grey Areas” and “What ifs”

PEER EDUCATION AT YOUTHCO  Sex-positive  Inclusive

PEER EDUCATION WITH YOUNG GAY MEN  Easier to be forthcoming  Feelings of belonging  Finding meaning  Sense of security  Information from a reliable source

MPOWERMENT CURRICULUM  M-Group  Unmask  MpowerU 101  …

ENGAGEMENT & COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

ENGAGEMENT 1. Reach Out 2. Develop Relationships 3. Foster Community 4. Share our Vision 5. Build Trust 6. Inspire Action 7. Cultivate and Steward Ultimate Goal:  To mobilize youth to be leaders in the HIV movement and in their own communities.

THE EXCUSES: ENGAGING YOUNG GUYS  “Young guys don’t want to come to our programs.”  That’s because the program needs to be fun and fulfill an actual want or need of young gay guys.  “Young guys are apathetic and just don’t care.”  That’s because they’re not being inspired. This generation has a taste for the dramatic/emotional and expect to be stirred to action.  “It’s hard to reach/find young gay guys.”  This is actually the easiest generation to reach in the history of humanity. They’re all online.

THE EXCUSES: ENGAGING YOUNG GUYS  “ This generation is lazy and self- entitled.”  So were the Baby Boomers. And Generation X. Everyone always thinks that about the youngest generation.  “We can’t relate to younger guys.”  Then hire younger staff or empower a group of young volunteers. Be a youth ally and practice good Eldership.  “The young guys we do find aren’t ‘high - risk’ enough.”  There is no standard demographic profile of the young gay male that gets HIV. Don’t go looking for specific people or you’ll ignore everyone else. Target the community and you’ll reach everyone organically.

THE EXCUSES: SOCIAL MEDIA  “Social Media doesn’t actually accomplish anything and we don’t have the staff time.”  “Our communications policies don’t allow junior staff and volunteers to speak for the organization .”  “We have no control over what other people say to/about us online .”  “Social Media is a passing fad.”  Followers, fans, and ‘likes’ don’t actually mean anything.”

SOCIAL MEDIA AT YOUTHCO  Learning from 2008 Obama Campaign  Social Media Policy = Not to have a social media policy  Decentralized control to each program. Autonomous communities  Brand and values consistency ensured by managers via Hootsuite  Only delete comments in extreme circumstances! Engage in a dialogue  Specific strategy for each platform  YouthCO currently has 12 social media accounts on 5 platforms targeting specific youth communities. Controlled by many staff and volunteers

WHICH PLATFORM WHEN?  Facebook – Event promotion, program pages, direct messaging  Twitter – Professional / informative  Instagram – Pictures/videos from event  Tumblr – Miscellaneous fun reposts

WHICH PLATFORM WHEN?  YouTube – Gay and sex- positive video promos  Email – Rarely used. Facebook messaging instead  Texting – Core Group members and those who opt-in  Facebook Advertising - Cost effective, hyper- targeted social advertising

STAYING IN CONTROL …  Centralizes control of multiple social media accounts onto one control panel  Allows multiple staff/volunteers to control multiple channels  Social CRM (contact relationship manager) database.  Manages contacts via email, phone, texting, Facebook, Twitter as well as live events

NATIONBUILDER

MILLENNIALS & DIGITAL ACTIVISM  Technology-enabled social movements and protests of the past 15 years have shaped the attitudes of Millennials surrounding human rights and social justice  What makes digital movement-building successful?  It inspires and/or organizes real-world action.

FROM ONLINE ENGAGEMENT TO REAL WORLD ACTION  What is the value of a comment or a “like” on Facebook?  NO VALUE if we don’t follow up!  Each time someone interacts with our page or post it’s an invitation for us to talk to them  We’ve already done the hardest thing, which is getting them to notice us. Don’t waste it  It’s not a “cold” contact because they either follow our organization or we have friends in common. Mention the connection to build trust

Tagged with “MP General” • Flagged for “Initial Outreach” • All contact information he’s shared with us is available • If he has interacted with us on Twitter or Facebook, • NationBuilder matches the names up and links his social media accounts to his profile