Project MOCHA serves a unique purpose in San Diego as the only coalition that creates structural changes to address the impact of HIV on young gay and bisexual men of color. The projects that we embark upon either directly or indirectly address the "networks, conditions, systems, and stigmas that fuel the HIV epidemic" (HIV Prevention at the Structural Level: The Role of Social Determinants of Health & HIV, SYPP Center, 2012). We call our projects Structural Change Objectives, or SCOs.
Our first SCO was a three-week social marketing campaign in February 2011 called We Know Different. Available in English and Spanish, the campaign encouraged young Latino gay men to test for HIV. From North County to the South Bay, the campaign was present on billboards, public transportation ads, print media, and online.
Building upon the momentum garnered during the We Know Different campaign, we enthusiastically decided to tackle several SCOs simultaneously. One of our first priorities was to develop a website to increase visibility of our work and facilitate communication among members. At the same time, we wanted to survey young gay and bisexual men of color so that we could develop a clearer sense of their needs and identify gaps in services available to them. Lastly, we offered scholarships to local teachers to attend the Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership conference, which empowers educators with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Completing these SCOs heightened our awareness of the incredible impact we can make through structural change and inspired us to take on larger projects.
Our top priority right now is to develop online LGBTQ sensitivity and competency trainings for healthcare workers. This project was inspired by the fact that young gay and bisexual men often receive suboptimal care and experience negative health outcomes as a result of heteronormative beliefs held by healthcare workers. We're almost finished with the development stage and hope to start promoting the trainings soon. After we complete this project, we'll start working with businesses in San Diego County to promote HIV testing.
WANT TO BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT? CONNECT WITH US AT info@project-mocha.org
