The Mpowerment Project at USCA Hollywood FL 2016

We are attending the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) in Hollywood FL September 15-18, 2016. We look forward to meeting you! 

Join us as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of USCA.
Website: National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC).

Website: USCA 2016.

Download the #2016USCA App:  Click me. 


NMAC will prep a series of e-newsletters to help you get ready for the meeting:
E-newsletter 1: Messages and Stories for 2016.  
E-newsletter 2: Don't let the process get in the way of outcomes.  
E-newsletter 3: Youth Initiative 2016.
E-newsletter 4: Getting ready for 2016 USCA!
E-newsletter 5: Remembering Our History. 20 Years of USCA.

USCA online conference book.

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Scroll down for the following information:

• Our booth location at USCA 2016 (Booth 424, Grand Ballroom).
• Mpowerment (MP) Reunion and Affinity Session held on Friday September 16 at 6pm. Room 313 Diplomat Level 3.
• Workshops, panels and sessions of note: hosted by coordinators of MPs across the country

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Say Hi. Mpowerment USCA booth.

When:  Thursday - Saturday. 
Where: Grand Ballroom, Westin Diplomat.

During the Conference visit us at Booth 424. We represent the University California San Francisco's (UCSF) Capacity Building Assistance Partnership.  

We are hosting the booth alongside our colleagues: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) UCSF Alliance Health Project and the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health.  Be sure to stop by and say hello.  Pick up some of our free swag (pens, notepads and bags).

Click to Enlarge | Booth 424

Mpowerment Coordinators across the country will be holding shifts to meet you. Have questions about Mpowerment implementation best practices?  Get your questions ready and drop by to learn from their experience. 



Thursday, September 15

• 10am-12pm. Meet Dale, coordinator of Color in Common, Mpowerment Los Angeles CA. Facebook link: Color in Common. 

• 2pm - 3:30pm Share implementation best practices with Darrell of The D.E.N.I.M. Collection, Mpowerment Washington DC.  

• 3:30pm - 5pm Discuss implementation best practices with Jose of SOMOS, Mpowerment Wilton Manors FL.

Friday, September 16

• 2pm - 3:30pm Meet Cesar, coordinator of Color in Common, Mpowerment Los Angeles CA. Facebook Link: Color in Common.  

Follow our USCA adventures on twitter:  @mpCAPS |  #Mpowerment |  #USCA2016

Meet Mpowerment coordinators Jose, Darrell, Dale and Cesar at Booth 424.

Tweet me

Visit #Mpowerment at booth 424! Meet our colleagues @AHP_SF @CoE4TransHealth @UCSFCAPS | #USCA2015 Prevention for and by bi/gay men.

Dale is sharing implementation best practices of @colorincommon #Mpowerment CA. Thurs 9/15 10am-12pm. @UCSFCAPS booth 424. 

#2016USCA 

Visit #Mpowerment at booth 424. Thurs 9/15 3:30pm-5pm w/ Jose of @LatinosSalud FL. Drop by to network and share best practices. #2016USCA

RECOMMENDED: Beginner twitter pro-tips - just in time for USCA!

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Join Us. Mpowerment Reunion and Affinity Session.

Join Jose and Martinis at the MP Reunion. They coordinate  SOMOS Mpowerment FL

What: The MP Project Reunion and Affinity Session.  This year's theme: Disney! Look for Mickey-Ears. Have a Disney themed costume?  Own a pair of Mickey-Minnie-Ears?   Wear it!  (NOT required). Stay connected with the MP reunion, join the Facebook event: http://bit.ly/2aka0Rz 

Catch up with everyone involved in building healthy communities across the globe. Miss your fellow Mpowerment (MP) trainees? Interested in swapping best practices with other MPs? Well then, we've got you covered. Come play with us.

Click to Enlarge | Room 313 Level 3

When:  Friday, September 16 at 6pm.

Where: Room 313 Diplomat Level 3.

Who: Everyone is welcome...funders, CDC staff, all USCA attendees, supervisors, coordinators and participants. Anyone interested in HIV prevention for and by bisexual and gay men.

Follow the Reunion event page for news, updates and other news: Facebook event link.

Hosts: Jose and Martinis of SOMOS (Facebook page), Mpowerment Wilton Manors FL.

We borrowed some Disney inspired artwork from José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros

Tweet me 

Join us for a Family Reunion. Mpowerment Project at #2016USCA FB link: http://bit.ly/2aka0Rz 

Join us at the #Mpowerment Reunion & Affinity #2016USCA FB event page: http://bit.ly/2aka0Rz Everyone welcome!

RELATED: 3 reasons your Mpowerment Project needs twitter. 

Mpowerment Harry Potter Family Reunion | USCA 2015.

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SESSIONS OF NOTE.  Be sure to attend these sessions. 

• YOUTH INITIATIVE 2016 – Thinking Well, With, and About Each Other’s Leadership, Thursday September 15, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, Diplomat 5 room. 

• Never Trust Anyone Over 40?  The HIV Leadership Generational Divide. Saturday September 17, 2-3:30pm. via Capacity for Health.

Saturday September 17, 2-3:30pm. 

Elsa via Austin PrEP Access Project. 

RELATED: 8 ways Mpowerment Projects can support PrEP as an option.

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RELATED:  Join us. Attend the Mpowerment Project training.

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Check out more USCA goodness here: Follow the National Minority AIDS Council 

We are members of the CBA Prevention Network. 

Statement on Orlando

The Mpowerment staff at UCSF are heartbroken and outraged by the massacre in Orlando at the Pulse. 

Our thoughts are with the victims families, friends and the Orlando LGBT community. We are grieving with you.

Mpowerment Projects have always worked closely with gay bars in communities, and bars have been some of our strongest allies in HIV prevention efforts with young adult gay men.

LGBT bars have been one of the few gatherings places we historically thought of as safe. This violent act was not only an attack on the people who were there; it was an attack on the all the places we consider a refuge.

LGBT bars have been the cornerstone of the modern gay rights movement going back to the Stonewall Riots. The ramifications of this attack are larger than that one act of horrific violence and hatred. A natural, knee-jerk reaction might be to consider avoiding bars, community events, and other LGBT-friendly venues, but we can’t let the terrorists win. When they want to tear us down, we must re-double our efforts to build up our community. 

Our team will continue to patronize our local businesses and to become even more active in the LGBT community. That is our path forward to healing.  We urge everyone to do the same. 

All of us are working together to strengthen the health of young gay men’s communities and reduce social isolation. With renewed energy we support the critical work of agencies and their Mpowerment Projects to create healthy, peaceful, and caring communities of young adult gay and bisexual men.

Peace,

The Mpowerment staff

#WeAreOrlando / #OrlandoUnited 

What is the Mpowerment Project? Together creating communities for friendship, for health, for life.

In Memoriam 

Orlando attack victims.

Resources

Responding to the tragedy in Orlando: Helpful responses for LGBTQ people and allies. via Glenda Russel, PhD

We are Orlando

Addressing the Orlando shooting in your school.
 via GLSEN

Recovering emotionally from disaster.  via American Psychological Association

The Trevor Project. A national 24 hour hotline for LGBT youth.

Articles

In praise of Latin night in the queer club. via Washington Post

Latinos suffer brunt of attack. via Latinos Salud

What it costs to be gay in public.  via  Esquire

The long tragic history of violence at LGBT bars in America. via Slate

An open letter to straight people on the Pulse massacre. via Huffington Post

Orlando club owner opened Pulse to celebrate her brother who died of AIDS. via Mashable 

For a lot of our families, having a son or daughter who is gay (or bisexual) is maybe a secret until this weekend. via Towleroad

'There is a Pulse around every corner':  Why gay clubs matter. via the Guardian

CBS Evening News highlights rise in anti-LGBT violence in the US. via CBS News / Towleroad

L.G.B.T. people are more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other minority group. via New York Times

Can we stop erasing Latinos from the Orlando massacre narrative? via Latino Rebels 

www.cba.ucsf.edu

Empowering Long Island's Gay Men of Color

Empowering L.I's Gay Men of Color
Pride for Youth Focuses on Black, Latino Communities 

via Bellmore Herald. March 2, 2016.  Read the original article here.

When Sony Abraham, 23, came out to his parents in the summer of 2013, he didn’t know how they would react or what to expect. Coming from a traditional Indian background, he didn’t have the most supportive environment growing up as a gay man struggling with his identity, he said.

“In Indian culture, it’s not OK to be gay. It’s viewed as a sort of shameful secret, at least mostly because there is so little exposure,” said Abraham. “People don’t accept or understand that LGBT is who we are.” After moving back to Floral Park from Buffalo, where he attended college, in January 2014, Abraham found the Mpowerment program. “I needed [to find] a group with kids my own age I could connect with,” he said. “You know, somewhere I could go and just feel comfortable to be who I am, and get away from the daily aggravations of just being a member of the LGBT community.” Abraham said he’s now happy and studying engineering at Hofstra University.

Gus Gonzalez, left, Mario Manaseri and Sony Abraham had a productive and lively meeting of the Mpowerment group.

Pride for Youth’s Mpowerment Program is designed to meet the needs of young gay, bisexual and transgender men, ages 17 to 26, with a special emphasis on African-Americans and Latinos. The program is based at the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, and its main objective is to help young men stay free of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and to provide a safe space and support structure for gay, bisexual and transgender men in need.

“Now I feel like I could live a happy, healthy life, but I didn’t feel that way when I first came to Mpowerment,” Abraham said. “I saw no light, I saw no hope, I saw no dream. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to get through this, how am I going to get through school, get through life if I don’t have anyone supporting or understanding me?’”

“Mpowerment was like my solace, 

It was that place I could go to hang out, 

just be myself, and talk to other people like me

 who understand and relate to what I’m saying.”

“Mpowerment was like my solace,” he said. “It was that place I could go to hang out, just be myself, and talk to other people like me who understand and relate to what I’m saying.”

Thanks to the camaraderie and support that he received through the Mpowerment program, Abraham was inspired to get involved with another initiative called LGBT Immigrants of Long Island, which represents a community that he believes has too few advocates.

“We have like-minded individuals here [at Mpowerment] who are career-driven like me, and who understand and accept me, individuals that genuinely care about you and your wellbeing, and just want to see you live a healthy, open and happy life,” he said. “If they see that, then they know they’ve done their jobs.”

Pride for Youth was established in 1993 to serve Long Island’s LGBT community, offering free, individual, group and family counseling, sexual health services and education, and youth leadership opportunities.

Mario Manaseri, 24, is a Pride for Youth Services coordinator from Huntington, and he has seen the MPowerment program grow up from its inception in 2011. “I’ve been a part of the MPowerment group since it began,” said Manaseri. “I wish I had known about the program when I was in high school; it would have helped me a lot.” He noted Mpowerment’s focus on the African-American and Latino communities, which have traditionally been less accepting of those who are LGBT.

The Mpowerment program, along with the Young Men’s and HIV+ support groups, provided direct services to 369 gay and bisexual young men in 2014, 72 percent of whom were men of color, according to an annual report published by the LICC. “Gay people in the colored community are more affected by the HIV epidemic,” said Manaseri. “That’s a big reason we reach out to those communities; they are a higher-risk population.”

The culturally diverse staff works with young men individually, in groups and through community outreach and events to provide opportunities for them to socialize, develop supportive relationships and become educated about HIV/STD prevention and safer sex. During a “core group” meeting on Feb. 13, members gathered to discuss topics of concern to the LGBT community, schedule events and activities and socialize. Members, new and old, introduced themselves by name, zodiac sign and identifying pronoun (he, she).

Pride for Youth has had a lasting impact on the young people in the program, members say. 95 percent said the program has helped them to become more accepting, 88 percent reported that it has helped them to be more connected to their LGBT peers, 88 percent said they had come out to a family member or friend since taking part, and 84 percent said that program involvement helped them to deal with self-esteem issues, according to the 2014 Client Satisfaction Survey.

When we come together to support each other,

 it's comfort, support, solidarity 

and just awareness too.

“To me the program means empowerment,” said Gus Gonzalez, 21, a sociology student at Nassau Community College. “You can see it in its most basic sense; we all have different lives, we all have things going on outside of this club, but when we come together to support each other, it’s comfort, support, solidarity and just awareness too.

“I think it’s the fact that Long Island doesn’t really have that many places for the LGBT community to come congregate,” Gonzalez added. “Sometimes you really long to connect with people who have similar experiences and would be able to share ideas. Not only that but creating a family and a strong social network you can incorporate in your regular life makes all the difference.”

The members of the Mpowerment program gathered during a group meeting at the Pride for Youth Coffeehouse at the Long Island Crisis Center on Feb. 17.

Be sure to follow the adventures of Mpowerment Long Island on Facebook and twitter.

Follow the national Mpowerment Project on Facebook and twitter.

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