Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Mpowerment Summit 2016 | San Francisco CA

When: Wednesday and Thursday, April 27 and 28, 2106. 
Where: Mission Hall, Global Health Sciences Building.
550 16th Street, San Francisco CA. UCSF.
(parking and transportation options) (map)

 Join the Mpowerment Summit Facebook event for updates.(click me).

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Scroll down for the following information:
  • Summit Tuesday, pre-Summit meet-up hosted by the Bridgemen, Mpowerment (MP) SF. Tuesday April 26.
  • Summit Agenda:  Workshops, panels and sessions of note: hosted by coordinators of MPs across the country.
  • Mpowerment Summit 2012 video.
  • Registration is full.  Wait-list available.

United Black Ellument, Mpowerment Dallas TX

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Summit-Tuesday. Pre-summit meet-up hosted by Bridgemen, MP SF.  
All participants are welcome to attend the Summit-Tuesday gathering in the Castro.

 Where: Strut, 470 Castro Street, SF.  In the heart of the Castro. (map)
When: Tuesday April 26, 2016.  6pm - 7:30pm
Who:  Mpowerment Summit participants.
What:  Come, meet, schmooze and play with Mpowerment Summit participants the evening before the BIG event. 

 Summit-Tuesday pre-summit event on Facebook: click me. 

Bridgemen is a project of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. 
The Bridgemen, Mpowerment San Francisco CA

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Summit Agenda:  Workshops, panels and sessions hosted by coordinators and supervisors of Mpowerment Projects across the country.
Wednesday April 26, 2016

8:30am - 9:15am     
  • Check in table
  • Mpowerment SWAG table (please bring safer-sex materials and Project swag to share).
  • Condom Bar presented by Color in Common Mpowerment Los Angeles CA.
  • Continental Breakfast.
9:15am - 9:45am Meet and greet -  "Dynamic Duos."

9:45am - 10:00am    Welcome, introductions and logistics.
Welcome, overview.  Susan Kegeles - Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, UCSF

 10:00am - 10:30am   Plenary Session - Mpowerment, High-Impact-Prevention and Capacity Building Assistance.  Making high Impact Prevention Possible. 
10:30am - 11:00am Q & A discussion

 11:00am - 11:30am  Innovations #1: Mpowerment and PrEP
Presenters:
PrEP overview:  Matt Mutchler, California State University.
Mpowerment and PrEP.  Marcus C, The Q Austin, MP TX and Austin  / AIDS Services Austin and PrEP Access Project (APAP) collaboration. 

 11:45-12:45pm  Lunch (provided)

 12:45pm - 2:00pm Breakout Sessions A and B
Presenters:
Session A:  Organizing, sustaining and reinvigorating the Mpowerment Core Group.
Panel featuring:  
Stephen L, New Haven Mpowerment, CT /  AIDS Project New Haven CT; 
Ben A, The Mu Crew, MP Dayton OH / Equitas Health OH; 
Michael D the Bridgemen, MP SF / San Francisco AIDS Foundation CA.

Session B: Funding, organizational issues and community support for Mpowerment in the High-Impact-Prevention (HIP) Landscape
Ron Simmons, The DEMIN Collection, Washington DC / Us Helping us.
Dwain Bridges, The Evolution Project, Mpowerment Atlanta GA / AID Atlanta.

2:15pm - 2:45pm MP Innovations #2.  Mpowerment, HIV testing and Engagement in Care. 
Presenters:
Mario V,  Mpowerment Long Island NY / Pride for Youth NY.

 3:00 - 3:30pm Break
Networking session (snacks)

Condom Bar presented by Color in Common.

3:30 - 4:45pm Breakout Session C and D

Session C:  Pilot testing new Mpowerment / High-Impact-Prevention activities 1:
New M-Group exercises / New 'living with HIV' group exercises.

Session D: Pilot testing new Mpowerment / High-Impact-Prevention activities 2:
New peer network group activities

4:45 - 5:00pm Day one closing / process evaluation


Thursday April 27, 2016

9:00 - 9:15 am    Breakfast
9:15 - 9:45am  Meet and Greet. Interactive Session hosted by the Bridgemen, MP SF.

 9:45- 10:15am  Plenary Session: Mpowerment National Advisory Board:  Community-Based-Organization and Health Department perspectives on Mpowerment in the High-Impact-Prevention Era.

Presenters:
Stephen Fallon, Latinos Salud; Jonathan Radigan, Vermont Department of Health
10:30 - 11:00am Q & A discussion

 11:10 - 12:15pm Plenary Panel:  Reaching Communities of Color. 

Presenters:
Travis W, The Denim Collection, Mpowerment Washington DC / Us Helping Us DC;
Jalenzski B, United Black Ellument (UBE), Dallas TX / Resource Center TX;
Leandro R, Latinos Commission on AIDS, New York City, NY.

 12:15 - 1:00pm Lunch (provided)

 1:00-1:30pm Plenary Panel: Mpowerment and reducing HIV stigma.
Presenters:
Jeremy T and Marcus C, The Q Austin, Mpowerment TX / AIDS Services Austin, TX.
1:30-1:45pm Q & A discussion

 1:45 - 2:15pm Break
Networking session (snacks)

 2:15-3:15pm Town Hall: What are the safer sex messages we are giving to participants?
Moderated by Greg Rebchook, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

 3:30 - 4:30pm - Breakout Session G and H
Session G Mpowerment Outreach Best Practices (Venue Based Outreach, Formal Outreach Events and Publicity and Social Media).  
Presenters:
Mario C, Somos OC / AIDS Services Foundation Orange County CA;
Dale M, Color in Common / Los Angeles LGBT Center CA;
Taylor S, The Q Austin / AIDS Services Austin TX.

Session H:  Mpowerment National Advisory Board (NAB) discussion.

 4:45 - 5:00pm Closing - evaluation
  • Brainstorming next steps
  • The future of the Mpowerment Project
  • Coalition building
  • Breaking down walls / barriers
  • Building a vision of Mpowerment for the future
Closing exercise
Mpowerment Long Island, New York City, NY
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 Waitlist available. This event is sold out, however you can be placed on a waiting list, should a space open up. To be added to the wait-list, contact Ben Zovod (415) 476-6428. E-mail: ben.zovod@ucsf.edu.
The DENIM Collection, Mpowerment Washington DC

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Save the Date Announcement 

We are happy to announce the Mpowerment Summit 2016. This meeting will be an opportunity for all of the CBOs funded under CDC’s 15-1502 FOA who are implementing Mpowerment (MP) to meet with the MP National Advisory Board (NAB), the original UCSF MP researchers and Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) providers, and other MPs from across the county.

The focus will be on enhancing MP implementation in the High Impact Prevention era—namely incorporating PrEP and engagement in HIV healthcare into MP.  As you probably know, we’ve done a lot of work in that area already, and many MPs are doing great things, but we haven’t had the opportunity to come together formally to discuss best-practices and to share innovative thinking.

We believe that MP coordinators and/or supervisors will gain the most from this summit. 

We have secured a block of downtown San Francisco hotel rooms and meeting space at UCSF on April 27-28, 2016.  Hotel rooms are available at Hotel Whitcomb for $139/night + tax.

We are excited about hosting this meeting and look forward to hearing from you!

 - UCSF Capacity Building Assistance

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The Q Austin, Mpowerment TX







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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

3 important reasons for having a separate space for the Mpowerment Project.

Home, Sweet Home: Not just any space will do.
Finding the right space for the Project is one key to its success. If young adult gay and bisexual men find the space comfortable, desirable, and convenient, they will be more likely to attend Project activities. Ideally, the space will serve as a gathering spot or community center for young adult gay and bisexual men. Even if you don’t have enough money for a stand-alone Project space, it’s really important to consider alternative spaces where Project participants can meet on a regular basis. Since most activities occur here, the space becomes an important aspect of the Project’s goal to build community. It provides a consistent setting where participants can meet and socialize.
The DENIM Collection, Mpowerment Washington DC
Even if you can’t afford a stand alone space, 
you’ll still need to find a suitable space 
where the Project members can meet and work and socialize - because having a space encourages community-building and support.

There are three main reasons for having a separate space for the Mpowerment Project:

  1. It is more convenient to have your own location where you can hold most Project activities.
  2. A separate space can help in building a strong and healthy young gay/ bisexual men’s community, and is often more comfortable for young gay/bisexual men than other arrangements. A separate space helps to give the Project a sense of identity, and can be used to build pride in being gay. Projects specifically for young men of color can use the space to build pride in being of specific ethnic/racial heritage.
  3. It makes it easier to display sexually graphic, gay-specific safer sex posters and distribute safer sex promotional materials and condoms. This helps build an environment that supports healthy communities and knowing one's HIV status. 


Take a tour of the Q Austin Project Space, Mpowerment TX, with Taylor!






Each of these points is discussed in greater detail in Module 6, Project Space  download it.  But in brief, a Project space offers young men a place where: 

  • they can find other young adult bisexual and gay men, to build supportive relationships, make new friends
  • they can be comfortable being openly gay/bisexual, and can get support for being proud about their sexual orientation and same sex attraction
  • they can meet and talk about anything, without worrying that people uncomfortable with their sexual orientation will be there to hassle them
  • they have real time, in-person alternatives to online communities
  • they can be in an environment that supports their having safer sex and knowing one's status
  • if they are part of an ethnic or racial minority group, they can feel support and build pride about their racial/ethnic background
RELATED: A critical need, "We have fewer places to call our own".
RELATED: Even as gay people become more accepted, we should have places that are just for us. 

The Project space can be used to help create norms about safer sex, knowing your current HIV status, staying in care and maintaining treatment as well as encouraging friends to do the same. 
The Q Austin Project Space

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More information about the Project Space can be found in Module 6: Project Space,  download it. 

 Objectives of Module 6: Project Space.
To describe:

  1. why it is important for the Mpowerment Project to have a space of its own;
  2. what to look for in a space;
  3. to offer guidelines about how to select a space; and
  4. to suggest how to set up a space to be effective and appealing. 


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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

3 reasons your Mpowerment Project needs twitter.

"But our guys don't use twitter!" and that may (or may not) be true, yet think about the 'big picture'. You'll be engaging and connecting with other HIV prevention leaders nationally and globally who need to know about the communities you are creating and the HIV prevention efforts going on in your city. 
Tweets via The Q Austin (TX) / M Factor (TX) / Mpowerment (national) and U-BE (TX)
1) Your voice is important. Share it. HIV prevention leaders and decision-makers need to hear the experience of Mpowerment Coordinators successfully working in community-level interventions. For example, HIV related twitter-chats occur regularly every month, often without fair representation of young gay and bisexual men. This can change. When your project attends a national HIV prevention conference there are conversations occurring during the plenaries and sessions.  Your voice can be there!  Don't miss an opportunity to extend your Project reach and boost your presence in the national HIV prevention public square. Participate!
2)  There is already an established Mpowerment (MP) twitter presence to support you. There are approximately 40 active Mpowerment Projects using twitter. Connect with other social-media-savvy-coordinators. First step?  Follow and retweet us at @mpcaps.  You'll soon be 'included in the MP twitter family. Check out our list of twitter projects.

3) Stay up-to-date and informed. HIV prevention information about the latest HIV biomedical and behavioral sciences are regularly tweeted out. There is no better newsfeed than twitter. We regularly check in on these favorite public health advocates:
@UCSFCAPS, @AHP_SF, @CDCNPIN, @YGBLI, @BlackAIDS, @HIVEqual,  @RectalMicro, @NMACCommunity, @Out2Enroll, @talkHIV, @PozMagazine, @c4tips, @caliPTC, @Project_Inform, @NASTAD, @TheTaskForce 

It doesn't take a lot of time. This is not about adding one more responsibility to your social media publicity strategy. The secret is: no one minds if you don't post for awhile. We suggest that you use your twitter account strategically; like participating in monthly twitter-chats and/or to participate in conversations at national and international HIV prevention conferences. Of course, if you are able to add twitter to a sustained social- media-publicity-strategy, DO IT. 
Top Mpowerment Tweeters (by followers) 2015

Where do I begin? Beginner Twitter pro-tips: 

Read more about how to publicize your Project in Module 10 Publicizing the Mpowerment Project a free download when you register at mpowerment.org 

Module 10: Publicizing the Mpowerment Project. Objectives:

To explain how to develop and implement a publicity plan that effectively reaches young adult Gay and Bisexual men and promotes the Project and its activities. 

For the Mpowerment Project to be truly a community wide HIV prevention program, as many young gay/bisexual men as possible must learn about the Project and its activities. Thus, effective publicity is an important Core Element to help the Project achieve its mission of increasing condom use and HIV testing among young gay/bisexual men in the community.  The most effective publicity campaigns: 

1) use multiple strategies
2) have clear goals
3) reach all segments of the target audience
4) are timely and ongoing, and 
5) place a Publicity Coordinator or volunteer(s) in charge of implementation. 

In order to publicize the Project successfully, it is important to select the most appropriate messages to send out and decide how best to convey them. We encourage being as creative and thorough as possible in publicizing the Project. The best suggestions will likely come from the Core Group and other volunteers who are most familiar with their own community. 

UCSF Capacity Building Assistance Partnership.
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Thursday, January 7, 2016

2 simple ways to evaluate Social Outreach Events: Mpowerment Best practices.

1) Learn from your experience
It is important to evaluate every Social Outreach Event, whether formally through the use of evaluation measures, or informally by observing who attended and how the event went. Every outreach event can be viewed as a learning process for both the Coordinators and the Core Group. At the next Core Group meeting following each Social Outreach Event, set aside time to share and process thoughts and feelings about the event. Congratulate each other on what went well, discuss what you learned, and decide how to improve future events. Here are a couple of key questions to ask:

Was publicity for the event effective? 
  • Did it reach enough men? 
  • Did it reach men who had never before attended any events? 
  • Did you reach all segments that you wanted to of the young  adult gay and bisexual men’s community?
Was the outreach performance carried out well? 
What materials were given at the event?
  • Was it interesting, sexy or funny? 
  • Did it effectively convey a message supportive of safer sex and/or knowing one's status and/or supporting friends living with HIV to be in/maintain their care?
Which segments of the young gay/bisexual men’s community did and did not attend the event? 
  • Did it attract the segments that you intended to reach? 
  • If not, how could you reach them in the future?
Did the event foster community-building? 
  • Did the event create a welcoming atmosphere? 
  • Was it favorable to meeting new men?
Was contact information collected successfully?

SOMOS OC | Mpowerment Orange County CA
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While Projects often put on Social Outreach Events that are wonderfully successful, all Projects have also put on some events that can hardly be classified as highly successful, although in fairness they may not have been failures either. Regardless of the outcome, keep a sense of humor about you and don’t get discouraged. Remember—even if an event does not live up to expectations, it may still have reached a number of men. New men may have been recruited to the Project or to M-groups, and may have formed new, supportive friendships. 

 Regardless of how successful a Social Outreach Event may be, learn from what may not have worked so well and use that insight in future planning. Consider what went right and what was less successful, and learn from the experiences—and then move on. It is also important to find ways to support Team members when they experience disappointment. However, we have found that it is not helpful to dwell too long on failures, point fingers, or spend inordinate amounts of time complaining about a non- responsive community. In short, for all of the above reasons, it is critically important that the Coordinators and the Core Group evaluate together every medium and large outreach event (as well as occasionally evaluate the effectiveness of a Project’s smaller, ongoing events).
RELATED: Developing a publicity plan: Mpowerment best practices. 

RELATED: 8 clever ways to support and supervise volunteers (and avoid burnout).


Mpowerment YVR | Vancouver BC
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2) Record each event
The Mpowerment Project (MP) Social Outreach Event Evaluation Form will be useful in guiding the Core Group discussion about each event (Register for free at the Mpowerment website to download the MP Manual:  Module 12: Evaluation, Figure 12.8 for the Social Outreach Event Evaluation Form.). Following the discussion, we suggest that the Project Coordinator complete a written copy of the form to serve as a record of the Project’s activities. In addition, with the form keep copies of all materials used for the event, including flyers, posters, ads, camera-ready art, photos, and so forth. Many Projects have found that making a scrapbook of all this material serves as an exciting and comprehensive visual history for new Project participants, implementing agency staff, funders, and future Coordinators.

 The majority of Projects use their Facebook, twitter and Instagram profiles to upload photos of recent events, in effect maintaining an on-line scrapbook.  ... and remember to take  lots of photos!  Assign a Core Group or volunteer photographer at every event you host. As we like to say, "if you don't post photos, the event didn't happen!"
Keeping complete records is important in providing documentation of Project activities. It also prevents the duplication of efforts in case an event is repeated or any of the materials are needed for future events. In addition, records help Project volunteers learn from the experiences of past participants. For more information on Project evaluation, see the MP manual:  Module 12: Evaluation. 

 RELATED:  2015 | Mpowerment Projects share event materials.

RELATED: 1 super simple way to recruit new participants: MP best practices.
The Mu Crew | Mpowerment Dayton OH
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Familiarize yourself with the elements of the MP's formal outreach: Module 7: Formal Outreach - Social Outreach Events and Outreach Team and Module 12: Monitoring and Evaluation.  Both Modules are free downloads when you register at mpowerment.org.

 Objectives of Module 7: Formal Outreach - Social Outreach Events and Outreach Team
To familiarize you with the elements of the Mpowerment Project's formal outreach, including:

  1. Social Outreach Events (ranging from events that attract 10 men to events that attract 200-300 or more men)
  2. The Outreach Team, and
  3. Outreach Materials that promote safer sex and testing.
What you'll find in the Appendix:
Figure 7.1 Sample timeline for planning large and medium sized Social Outreach Events
Figure 7.2 Sample monthly events calendars
Figure 7.3 Sample weekly event email reminders via Mpowerment Austin TX
Figure 7.5 Sample Outreach Team Planning Form
Figure 7.6 Outreach Team Evaluation Form

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This blog featured the Publicity materials of:

United Black Ellument - Mpowerment Dallas TX
Mpowerment New Haven - CT
SOMOS - Mpowerment Wilton Manors FL
The DENIM Collection - Mpowerment Washington DC
Mpowerment Long Island - New York NY
Vegas Mpowerment Project - NV

RELATED: Join us. Attend the Mpowerment Project training.

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