COLOR IN COMMON

CHALLENGES &

SUCCESSESPRESENTED TO

CHRIS BROWN

FROM:

DALE MADISON & CESAR TINOCO

THE MPOWERMENT PROJECT HAS 7 CORE ELEMENTS

• Core Group and Volunteers

• Coordinators

• Project Space

• Formal Outreach

• Informal Outreach

• M-groups

• Publicity Campaign

CORE GROUP AND VOLUNTEERSWHAT WORKS:• Personal and leadership development• One on one sexual health counseling• The guys form a close family bond• Up to date with new HIV prevention

practices• Disseminators of prevention

messages to peers• Culture and sexuality reinforced in a

positive environment

CHALLENGES:• Competing groups and events• Limited social circles, which makes bringing in

new members a challenge• Accessing POC youth to come to the center

that aren’t already being serviced or have the leadership skills required to carry out the commitment involved in CIC

• Youth leaders struggle with personal psycho-social issues and leadership development process takes time, trust, and patience

• Culture of expectation of incentives

CHALLENGES

We have groupsaround LA as well as The Center that servesimilar populations. Some guys jump back & forth between groups depending on what activity or incentive is involved.

It would be most effective to find a way for our internal youth programs to not be competing with each other.

COORDINATORS

HAVING TWO COORDINATORS HAS PROVED TO BE VERY SUCCESSFUL. THE GUYS RELATE TO US ASMENTORS AND OFTEN PERCEIVE US AS A REPLACEMENT FOR THE ADULT FIGURES IN THEIR LIVES. THOSE ADULT FIGURES ARE OFTEN ABSENT AND DISENGAGED.THERE ARE TIMES WHEN A YOUTH FINDS IT EASIER TO TALK TO ONE OF US ABOUT A PROBLEM ALTHOUGH WE MAY DISCUSS IT INTERNALLY WITH EACH OTHER.

THE SCOPE OF OUR CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS ALSO ALLOW US TO BRING VARIED EXPOSURE TO THE YOUTH FROM AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE AND LATINO HERITAGE. THE CULTURAL BONDS WE HAVE FORMED HAVE ALLOWED THEM TO MARCH IN A MLK DAY PARADE, AS WELL AS LATINO WORKER RIGHTS ON MAY DAY. FOR A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THEM, THIS WAS THEIR FIRST EXPERIENCE AS AN ACTIVIST ADVOCATING OPENLY WITH AND FOR THEIR COMMUNITY.

PROJECT SPACE

Until the Youth Space on Highland was finished, we used the library at the Village. Because our offices are in the Village, the access was very flexible. The space was small and cramped, but we made it work. Once the space was up and running at the Youth Center, we had more space at what seemed an ideal location. Our challenge sometimes, has been the availability of the space due to schedule of the building. Lack of integration with Children, Youth, and Family Services prohibits us from an easier access to scheduled activities that could enhance the youth of our program and vice versa.

FORMAL OUTREACH Formal outreach has been our biggestchallenge to date. Meeting our goal of reaching at least 100 youth from our target population at a formal event was unsuccessful until a recent partnership with C.I.T.Y.x1 (through SHEP).The last two events have met ournumbers but the challenge is to reachnew POC males that are not being servicedin the area.

Our biggest success with formal outreach has been our condom distribution efforts. Our youth leaders have taken it as a personal challenge to distribute condoms. Their commitment extends on the nights they go out on their personal time.

INFORMAL OUTREACH

Our youth leaders’ Facebook pages have been a successful tool for informal outreach. Our guys are tied to it via their mobile devices.We have expanded into dating apps such as A4A, Jack’d & Grindr.We have been successful in acquiring a few new members via such apps and it has been a perfect tool for discussing HIV issues and starting conversations.We are also starting to have conversations about ways of using media to initiate and facilitate difficult conversations about dating, relationships, testing, and safer sex negotiations.

What has not worked is tabling for events with printed literatureUnless there is an interactive activity.

M-GROUPS

What is probably our most successful effort has been our M-groups (renamed Rated M) the monthly 3-hour relationship negotiating workshop, tends to draw 12- 20 participants.

All our youth leaders undergo training to become facilitators of this workshop. It is during these trainings that some of the more personal conversations around safer sex are discussed, creating an amazing one on one educational opportunity. These workshops foster a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem building leading to safer, healthier choices in all aspects of their lives.

The challenge will be to push current participants to bring a new friend each time. Our core group has also proved to be great facilitators in these workshops.

“SEX SELLS”

PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

We have experimented with various limitedcampaigns. The results are notin yet. The challenge isto create materials in linewith the center’s image, but staying trueto youth input & creativity.

We are trying to reach a populationthat is not comfortableseeing LA Gay & Lesbian Center on all the collateral.

We are still in the early stages ofcreating a YouTube Channel.

CULTURAL EXPOSURE

I believe what weare most proudof has been the exposure of our youthto cultural events raisingtheir awarenessin the community about issuesthat relate to LGBT history,the arts, equality & pride.

SUMMARY

Mpowerment, as a multi-level intervention, requires time to be able to accurately measure its impact on our clients and communities. Since we know there are many factors that influence a young person’s risk behavior, we work with our men in addressing their holistic well being, which we strongly believe is needed to create a more streamlined route to the resources our sexual health program offers.

Although Color in Common has had both challenges and success, we would increase our successes by more readily embracing all that Children, Youth, and Family Services provides. A stronger integration with that department would alleviate some of the internal competition and would assist us in our mission in creating a healthier young men’s community.

Lastly, we are extremely confident the youth we work with will become great leaders if allowed the time and space to flourish resulting in a ripple effect of sex positive and affirming messages among their peers.