Presentation by Lisa Campbell Salazar and Sarah Switzer from Central Toronto Community Health Centres.

1. Empower: HIV/AIDS, Youth and Community Engagement Lisa Campbell Salazar, MES Sarah Switzer, MA Art of Public Health, October 1st, 2010

2. Icebreaker! Who are you and what brings you to this workshop? What colourundies are you wearing? What does the word “sex” mean to you?

3. Workshop at a Glance: Icebreaker & Intros What is Empower? HIV/AIDS, Youth Engagement and Community Arts Key Elements Case Studies Brainstorm Session: The Medium is the Message. Closing

4. What is Empower? Mission: Empower aims to enhance the capacity of diverse Toronto youth aged 16-29 to become HIV peer educators in their local communities through the arts. Partners: CATIE, GAAP, TRIP! (CTCHC)

5. Goals: To increase opportunities for youth engagement, peer education and HIV prevention through the arts. To increase the capacity of young people (16-29) to play an active role in locally situated HIV prevention and awareness efforts. To strengthen the voluntary sector for youth-serving HIV, sexual health and harm reduction services by bringing together peer educators to network, learn and share best practices in arts-based peer education and youth engagement.

6. What we do: Empower: Youth, Arts and Activism An HIV/AIDS Activism Manual for Youth by Youth (2007-2009) Empower Manual Community Launch (2009) Generation Sex, Y and Z: More Sex Ed for Youth by Youth (2010) Ongoing Capacity Building

7. HIV and Youth In Canada between 1998 and 2008, youth accounted for approximately 21%-23% of annual HIV test reports Highest in already vulnerable populations: Aboriginal Youth, Street-involved youth, LGTBQ youth & young women of colour Since 2001, STI rates have increased steadily among youth in Toronto (Toronto Public Health, 2008) – e.g. Chlamydia. In fact, Toronto reports higher rates of most reportable STIs compared to neighbouring regions and the rest of Canada. Correlation between STI risk and increased risk of HIV transmission, particularly among marginalized youth who are most at risk. As a result, youth have been identified as a priority population for sexual health programming by Toronto Public Health (McKeown, 2007).

8. Sexual Health Knowledge… The TTS study (Flicker et al., 2009) found that 83% of 1,216 Toronto teens surveyed had never visited a health care provider for any sexual-health related reason. Youth surveyed for the Toronto Teen Survey rated HIV/AIDS as one of the top three issues they wanted to learn more about in sexual health education. Only 62% of youth surveyed reported experiencing sexual health education in school while 8% of youth are not getting any sexual health education. Overall, research indicates an alarming gap in the sexual health knowledge of youth (Boyce, Doherty, Fortin, MacKinnon, 2003).

9. … is not enough! Youth are often over saturated by health information, yet rarely do they have agency in youth-serving programs. Youth need to be included as key stakeholders and experts in the development of community health messaging developed for youth. Knowledge of safer practices is not enough, and youth must be engaged as stakeholders in order to affect social change.

10. Challenging “One Size Fits All” In the context of Toronto’s diverse youth population, “one size fits all” STI and HIV/AIDS prevention strategies have proven ineffective at increasing knowledge and changing behaviour among youth (Dowsett et al., 1998). Conventional HIV prevention campaigns rely on discourses of victimization, morality, and fear as well as notions of the self-governing, rational individual (Hunter 2004, Bay-Cheng 2001, Raimondo, 2002; Adams 2006). In response to criticisms, arts-based approaches to HIV/AIDS education centre youth “as knowers” in relation to their own lived experiences “One Size Fits All?” PhotoVoice Workshop, Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention,

11. CHECKLIST

12. Some Ethical Implications How have the arts and arts education, reproduced power inequities? Ideological and institutional systems continue to reinforce what gets constituted as art and culture, often with help from capitalist markets, and at the expense of subjugating certain communities and associated art forms as less authentic (Clifford, 1988). Our conceptions of “Art” as tied to gender, race, class and nation-building The use of art raises questions about confidentiality, informed consent and disclosure.

13. Key Elements

14. Youth Engagement

15. Community Arts “Community arts is a field promoting artistic practices with groups and communities to express diverse local identities and to raise awareness about social, political and environmental issues. Ranging from participatory mural production to popular theatre, activist video to group singing, from community dance to web-based activist art, we see community arts as a field that democratizes art, emphasizing the collaborative process as much as the product of art-making.” – from Community Arts Practice Certificate website (http://cap.apps01.yorku.ca)

16. Popular Education Emerged from French Revolution and expanded upon by Latin American activist educator Paulo Freire We are all experts! Honours lived experience Participatory Connecting the Dots Praxis

17. Anti-Oppressive Framework Attention to intersecting systems of power and privilege Looking at the way gender, race, class, sexual orientation, language, citizenship status, education level and ability play out in people’s every day lives and in programming Checking assumptions and unlearning dominant norms

18. Case Study: Digital Storytelling Playing it Safe, YouthCo (pg 53) Lulu’s Story: http://playing-it-safe.nfb.ca/youth-filmmakers.php?youth=20 How are the key elements demonstrated?

19. Examples of Arts-Based HIV KTE Make a Video! ** Prise Positive (pg 13), YouthCo (pg 53), Throw a Theme Party!** No Pants No Problem (pg 38), Head & Hands (pg 32) Make a Button! sprOUT (pg 24) Create a Zine! PYO (43), TRIP! (58) Throw a Fashion Show! (pg 14) Take a Photo! ** GAAP (pg 26) , sprOUT (pg 18) Art + Community-Based Research = Taking Action (pg 44-47) Graffiti and Street Art (pg. 61-62) **

20. The Medium is the Message How does the medium you are working with add to your message? Advantages and challenges to using each art form (e.g. ethical issues, literacy levels, cultural sensitivity, cost, etc.) Different art forms carry different messages and have different processes (e.g. individual, group, etc.) How might you apply the concepts of youth engagement, anti-oppression, community arts and popular education to your project? Will you choose to exhibit or display the created works? Art forms can be used in different ways for knowledge transfer and exchange. Are there any ethical concerns to exhibiting the works?

21. Instructions: Get Creative! Split into groups Each group will be given chart paper, one artistic medium with an example from the Empower Manual Using the issues raised throughout the presentation, explore potential advantages and challenges to working your medium Create a new example (real or imagined) of how you might use this art form in a health promotion context Feel free to integrate creative approaches into your presentation

22. Thank you for participating! For more info email info@empoweryouth.info www.empoweryouth.info