Black voices: leveraging digital tools to reach and engage Black gay men

From AIDS.gov…

More Americans than ever before have access to Internet-enabled technologies and are participating in online social networking platforms. This trend is particularly notable among women, African-Americans, and Latinos and provides hope that effective use of new social technologies could reshape how we reach, engage, and mobilize vulnerable populations such as Black gay men (BGM) and other men who have sex with men (MSM) who are disproportionately impacted by the domestic HIV epidemic. For example, recent data from the The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project indicate that while the digital divide persists as it relates to Internet access, African-Americans use mobile devices at the same rate as their peers and lead the way in participation in social media such as Twitter.

There is little data available about how BGM/MSM are using social technologies. So, last year, as part of ongoing efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of BGM/MSM, The National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition (NBGMAC) launched a national survey to learn about the online communication habits of Black gay men. The survey’s goals are to better understand how BGM/MSM use the Internet to communicate and receive national health policy and advocacy information. The data gathered from this survey will contribute to our understanding of how to effectively leverage the Internet for outreach and engagement around health information and national policy issues of importance to BGM/MSM across the nation.

Preliminary survey data highlight the importance of social networking platforms like Facebook in connecting with communities of Black gay men and sharing health policy and advocacy information. The data also reflect a notable level of interest in biomedical HIV prevention tools like Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Findings like these point to the growing importance of making information available about HIV prevention in a way that meets the needs of the populations most impacted the epidemic. If you are a Black gay, bisexual or same-gender loving man, please take a moment to complete the brief survey and share with your networks. If not, please also consider sharing with any colleagues, friends or loved ones who may be willing to participate and help us to shed light on the communication, health information, and policy and advocacy needs of this underserved community.

To complete the survey, click here or copy and paste the survey’s URL into your Internet browser: http://svy.mk/15KFMwc .

“Speak Out: Let’s Bring HIV Out of the Closet”

From the Website Edge in Boston…

The signs are hard to miss. Exit a Muni train at the Castro station, and the wall-sized posters are greeting you as the doors slide open. The message – it is time to start talking about HIV and AIDS. Or, as Vincent Fuqua, program coordinator for the San Francisco Department of Public Health put it, “find our voice again.”

“As long as people are still becoming infected with HIV, as long as people are still HIV-positive,” Fuqua said, “it’s still a part of us.”

The Department of Public Health, along with the national Greater Than AIDS initiative and the Kaiser Family Foundation, recently introduced Speak Out: Let’s Bring HIV Out of the Closet, a social marketing campaign aimed at encouraging men not only to get tested for HIV regularly, but also to speak openly about their status and the disease in general, as a way to remove some of the stigma within the community associated with being HIV-positive.

“We understand that there’s been a lot of strides in the gay community, which is incredible. The thing is, though, HIV is still a big part of our community as well. So we wanted to make sure people don’t forget that,” Fuqua said.

The campaign was introduced October 10 at Blush Wine Bar in the Castro. It will extend to other cities next year.

Continue reading here.

CDC expands Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign™, launches Spanish version

spanish campaign From AIDS.gov…

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded the national HIV awareness and anti-stigma campaign, Let’s Stop HIV Together™, including the launch of a Spanish-language version of the campaign, Detengamos Juntos el VIH™. The campaign now includes new participants, more materials in both Spanish and English, and HIV awareness and testing information in Spanish through the new website. Campaign materials are available on the CDC’s Act Against AIDS website.

New English materials available on the campaign website include:

PSA for TV featuring Jamar Rogers from NBC’s The Voice
4 personal video stories
15 campaign posters
Brochure

New Spanish materials on the Spanish-language version of the Act Against AIDS website include:

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for radio and TV
3 personal video stories
12 campaign posters
Brochure and palm card