What's New

Building capacity to conduct community based research on evaluating youth sexual health peer education programs

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

The purpose of this project is to build the capacity of community organizations to evaluate youth sexual health peer education programs. The specific objectives are to:

synthesize and disseminate knowledge on levels of sexual health education among Canadian youth
synthesize and disseminate knowledge on evaluating peer education programs, particularly programs focusing on youth and sexual health
develop and pilot a method of evaluating the efficacy of youth peer education programs

The literature reviews will be written by high school students who will be trained in research methods by a graduate assistant on the project. Interviews on needs and best practices in peer education evaluation methods will be conducted with peer educators recruited through our Community Advisory Board. Based on data collected through peer educator interviews a peer education evaluation strategy will be developed and piloted.

Click here to view the poster.

More Info:
This is a collaborative project with Let's Stop AIDS, Planned Parenthood Toronto, Patrick 4 Life and York University.

From left to right Christine, June, Tiffany:

Performed Ethnography, HIV/AIDS & Aboriginal Youth

Centre For Urban Health Initiatives

This proposal is for seed money to support the development of an innovative knowledge dissemination strategy for research on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth. We are requesting seed funding to:

1) involve Aboriginal youth in a performed ethnography project designed to turn data collected in a study on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth into scripts and discussion questions that can be used for HIV/AIDS education in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities;
2) develop a draft evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of the scripts as a knowledge dissemination strategy; and
3) pilot the performed ethnography and evaluation tool with a group of Aboriginal youth and non-Aboriginal youth from local community organizations.

This project extends the collaborative work of the Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention (GAAP) Project, University of Toronto and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) to include Native Child and Family Services. The tools developed through this grant will be used as the basis of a larger proposal to support the wider dissemination of the innovative prevention strategy and to assess its effectiveness with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences in Ontario and Quebec sites associated with our GAAP project on Aboriginal youth.

Institutions / Organizations represented:
The University of Toronto, Native Child and Family Services, York University, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, McGill University

For up to date news, check out our project blog!

The goal of this study is to engage Aboriginal youth in HIV prevention leadership using art-based approaches. Specific objectives include:

(1) To explore how Aboriginal youth link structural inequalities with individual risk, HIV and Aboriginal culture(s) using art-based methodologies;
(2) To investigate the efficacy of art-based methods models of engagement (e.g., hip-hop, video/photographic documentary, popular theatre, music and/or dance, etc.);
(3) To build youth capacity to address HIV issues in their local communities;
(4) To develop and disseminate community-specific “by youth for youth” HIV prevention and support materials; and
(5) To create a national digital repository of “by youth for youth” HIV prevention materials.

Embedded and underlying each of these goals and objectives, is respect for the principles of ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP).

The research team will partner with six local communities in different regions of the country to co-sponsor 2.5 day “Taking Action” workshops. Each workshop will host 15-60 youth (ages 13-18 years). During the workshops, youth will participate in an HIV 101 educational session presented by local Aboriginal youth facilitators. Break out sessions (with content determined by individual communities) of different media groups (e.g., music, video, photography, hip hop, etc.) will be provided. Break out sessions will be provided by trained Aboriginal artists (where possible) and where youth participants will be provided opportunities to develop projects that unpack the links between structural inequalities, individual HIV risk, and Aboriginal culture(s). At the end of the final day, youth will have an opportunity to present their work to their peers and the larger local community. Post-workshop, participating youth will be interviewed individually and asked to reflect on key knowledge gained and how their artistic productions are embedded in structural realities. Adopting an Indigenous approach to research and with assistance from youth participants and research assistants, interviews and media will be qualitatively analyzed for thematic content.

More information:
Sarah Flicker and Randy Jackson (Nominated Co-Principle Investigators)
Operating Grant: HIV/AIDS (Aboriginal Stream – Community-Based Research)
$100,000/year for three years

Toronto Teen Survey

Project Partners - Toronto Teen Survey

The aim of the Toronto Teen Survey (TTS) is to gather information from youth on assets, gaps and barriers that currently exist in sexual health education and services and to use the information to develop a city-wide strategy to increase positive sexual health outcomes for diverse Toronto youth.

The TTS research project is a partnership between the Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention Project (University of Toronto), Planned Parenthood, York University’s Faculty of Environmental Sciences, the University of Toronto's Public Health Sciences Department, the Ontario HIV/AIDS Treatment Network (OHTN), and Toronto Public Health.

Teens are integrally involved in all stages of the TTS project design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The first phase of this project concluded in summer 2005. In phase one funding was secured from the Wellesley Central Grants Program to recruit 12 teens to form a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) to assist in the development of a survey designed to assess the current state of sexual health services and desired attributes of ideal services for youth.

In March 2006 funding was secured from OHTN to undertake the next two phases of the proposed research. In phase two, the survey will be distributed to diverse youth across Toronto in order to find out what sexual health services are currently being used by youth, what are the biggest barriers that prevent youth from using sexual health services, and how can these barriers can be removed or minimized. The survey will be administered to youth groups in Toronto by the YAC.

In the third phase of this project, survey results will be presented to focus groups of service providers currently engaged in sexual health promotion. During these facilitated discussions, service providers will be asked to reflect on what the results mean to them in their everyday work, how current services could be adapted or improved, and provide input into the development of a comprehensive, coordinated city-wide strategy to improve and target sexual health services for youth that takes into account the diversity of youth communities and necessary approaches.

Media

More information:
Planned Parenthood Toronto
Susan Flynn, SFlynn@ppt.on.ca, 416-961-0113, ext. 158

PROJECT: HIV Risk, Systemic Inequities, and Aboriginal Youth: Widening the Circle for Prevention Programming

Project Partners - HIV Risk

Partners: The Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network & Youth Action Network
Funder: The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR)

Our overall goal for this project is to further our work with Aboriginal youth on issues related to HIV risk and to use this data to suggest prevention strategies that may work for aboriginal populations. We plan to conduct focus groups with Aboriginal youth in urban and reserve settings in two Canadian provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Our specific objectives are to:

examine race, racism, stigma and other systemic inequities as risk factors for HIV infection;
explore how race intersects with other equity entry points to increase HIV vulnerability and;
identify educational and community support initiatives that work for Aboriginal youth.

The results of this research will allow us:

to compare issues facing Aboriginal youth in different geographical locations;
to ensure that the voices of Aboriginal youth in various contexts are considered in HIV prevention and programming and;
to consider the relevance of our findings for HIV prevention programming for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth.

Read the report (PDF).

Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention: Exploring Gender as a Risk Factor for HIV Infection among Rural and Aboriginal Youth in Ontario.

Our overall goal for this project is to work with Aboriginal and rural-area youth in Ontario, aged 16-20 years on issues related to gender and HIV risk. This study will expand on our work with the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded Gendering Adolescent Aids Prevention (GAAP) project which includes several studies on issues related to gender, HIV/AIDS and Canadian and South African youth (for further information see our website, www.utgaap.info). This project is meant to create an opportunity to work with youth under-represented in current GAAP studies.

This project has three specific goals: 1) to learn about current HIV prevention messages familiar to rural and Aboriginal youth; 2) to explore with youth the ways their experience of gender and gendered relations affects their HIV risk; 3) to explore possibilities for developing gender-sensitive HIV prevention programs tailored to these specific youth; and 4) to invite participants from the Aboriginal and rural working groups to become members of the GAAP Youth Advisory Board.

Read the report (PDF).

PROJECT: TIG Xpress - HIV/AIDS

Project Partners - TIG Xpress

Partners: TakingIT Global & Teen Net
Funder: The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

This project aims to create innovative tools for HIV/AIDS prevention and education, with a focus on issues of global social justice. Participants in Canada and South Africa will use photography to express themselves on HIV, with a focus on three main areas:

Social Inequalities

Inequalities that contribute to HIV vulnerability, both on a global scale,
as well as within Canada
Determinants of health such as poverty and gender violence

Global Education

Global disparities and impacts, such as the migrant workforce and the lack
of access to antiretroviral medication
Global responsibilities and failures for HIV prevention and aid
The disproportional impact of HIV/AIDS on girls and women

Representation

Analyzing and challenging stereotypical representations of HIV/AIDS
Creating alternative representations that reflect youth's own realities

The resulting photographs will be used to develop a youth media toolkit for HIV/AIDS education. This toolkit will be featured online at www.TIGed.org, www.utgaap.info and results will also be presented at the upcoming HIV/AIDS conference in Toronto in 2006.




	What's New Building capacity to conduct community based research on evaluating youth sexual health peer education programs The purpose of this project is to build the capacity of community organizations to evaluate youth sexual health peer education programs. The specific objectives are to: synthesize and disseminate knowledge on levels of sexual health education among Canadian youth synthesize and disseminate knowledge on evaluating peer education programs, particularly programs focusing on youth and sexual health develop and pilot a method of evaluating the efficacy of youth peer education programs The literature reviews will be written by high school students who will be trained in research methods by a graduate assistant on the project. Interviews on needs and best practices in peer education evaluation methods will be conducted with peer educators recruited through our Community Advisory Board. Based on data collected through peer educator interviews a peer education evaluation strategy will be developed and piloted. Click here to view the poster. More Info: This is a collaborative project with Let's Stop AIDS, Planned Parenthood Toronto, Patrick 4 Life and York University. From left to right Christine, June, Tiffany: Performed Ethnography, HIV/AIDS & Aboriginal Youth This proposal is for seed money to support the development of an innovative knowledge dissemination strategy for research on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth. We are requesting seed funding to: 1) involve Aboriginal youth in a performed ethnography project designed to turn data collected in a study on HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal youth into scripts and discussion questions that can be used for HIV/AIDS education in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities; 2) develop a draft evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of the scripts as a knowledge dissemination strategy; and 3) pilot the performed ethnography and evaluation tool with a group of Aboriginal youth and non-Aboriginal youth from local community organizations. This project extends the collaborative work of the Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention (GAAP) Project, University of Toronto and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) to include Native Child and Family Services. The tools developed through this grant will be used as the basis of a larger proposal to support the wider dissemination of the innovative prevention strategy and to assess its effectiveness with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences in Ontario and Quebec sites associated with our GAAP project on Aboriginal youth. Institutions / Organizations represented: The University of Toronto, Native Child and Family Services, York University, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, McGill University For up to date news, check out our project blog! The goal of this study is to engage Aboriginal youth in HIV prevention leadership using art-based approaches. Specific objectives include: (1) To explore how Aboriginal youth link structural inequalities with individual risk, HIV and Aboriginal culture(s) using art-based methodologies; (2) To investigate the efficacy of art-based methods models of engagement (e.g., hip-hop, video/photographic documentary, popular theatre, music and/or dance, etc.); (3) To build youth capacity to address HIV issues in their local communities; (4) To develop and disseminate community-specific “by youth for youth” HIV prevention and support materials; and (5) To create a national digital repository of “by youth for youth” HIV prevention materials. Embedded and underlying each of these goals and objectives, is respect for the principles of ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP). The research team will partner with six local communities in different regions of the country to co-sponsor 2.5 day “Taking Action” workshops. Each workshop will host 15-60 youth (ages 13-18 years). During the workshops, youth will participate in an HIV 101 educational session presented by local Aboriginal youth facilitators. Break out sessions (with content determined by individual communities) of different media groups (e.g., music, video, photography, hip hop, etc.) will be provided. Break out sessions will be provided by trained Aboriginal artists (where possible) and where youth participants will be provided opportunities to develop projects that unpack the links between structural inequalities, individual HIV risk, and Aboriginal culture(s). At the end of the final day, youth will have an opportunity to present their work to their peers and the larger local community. Post-workshop, participating youth will be interviewed individually and asked to reflect on key knowledge gained and how their artistic productions are embedded in structural realities. Adopting an Indigenous approach to research and with assistance from youth participants and research assistants, interviews and media will be qualitatively analyzed for thematic content. More information: Sarah Flicker and Randy Jackson (Nominated Co-Principle Investigators) Operating Grant: HIV/AIDS (Aboriginal Stream – Community-Based Research) $100,000/year for three years Toronto Teen Survey The aim of the Toronto Teen Survey (TTS) is to gather information from youth on assets, gaps and barriers that currently exist in sexual health education and services and to use the information to develop a city-wide strategy to increase positive sexual health outcomes for diverse Toronto youth. The TTS research project is a partnership between the Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention Project (University of Toronto), Planned Parenthood, York University’s Faculty of Environmental Sciences, the University of Toronto's Public Health Sciences Department, the Ontario HIV/AIDS Treatment Network (OHTN), and Toronto Public Health. Teens are integrally involved in all stages of the TTS project design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The first phase of this project concluded in summer 2005. In phase one funding was secured from the Wellesley Central Grants Program to recruit 12 teens to form a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) to assist in the development of a survey designed to assess the current state of sexual health services and desired attributes of ideal services for youth. In March 2006 funding was secured from OHTN to undertake the next two phases of the proposed research. In phase two, the survey will be distributed to diverse youth across Toronto in order to find out what sexual health services are currently being used by youth, what are the biggest barriers that prevent youth from using sexual health services, and how can these barriers can be removed or minimized. The survey will be administered to youth groups in Toronto by the YAC. In the third phase of this project, survey results will be presented to focus groups of service providers currently engaged in sexual health promotion. During these facilitated discussions, service providers will be asked to reflect on what the results mean to them in their everyday work, how current services could be adapted or improved, and provide input into the development of a comprehensive, coordinated city-wide strategy to improve and target sexual health services for youth that takes into account the diversity of youth communities and necessary approaches. Media More information: Planned Parenthood Toronto Susan Flynn, SFlynn@ppt.on.ca, 416-961-0113, ext. 158 PROJECT: HIV Risk, Systemic Inequities, and Aboriginal Youth: Widening the Circle for Prevention Programming Partners: The Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network & Youth Action Network Funder: The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) Our overall goal for this project is to further our work with Aboriginal youth on issues related to HIV risk and to use this data to suggest prevention strategies that may work for aboriginal populations. We plan to conduct focus groups with Aboriginal youth in urban and reserve settings in two Canadian provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Our specific objectives are to: examine race, racism, stigma and other systemic inequities as risk factors for HIV infection; explore how race intersects with other equity entry points to increase HIV vulnerability and; identify educational and community support initiatives that work for Aboriginal youth. The results of this research will allow us: to compare issues facing Aboriginal youth in different geographical locations; to ensure that the voices of Aboriginal youth in various contexts are considered in HIV prevention and programming and; to consider the relevance of our findings for HIV prevention programming for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth. Read the report (PDF). Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention: Exploring Gender as a Risk Factor for HIV Infection among Rural and Aboriginal Youth in Ontario. Our overall goal for this project is to work with Aboriginal and rural-area youth in Ontario, aged 16-20 years on issues related to gender and HIV risk. This study will expand on our work with the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded Gendering Adolescent Aids Prevention (GAAP) project which includes several studies on issues related to gender, HIV/AIDS and Canadian and South African youth (for further information see our website, www.utgaap.info). This project is meant to create an opportunity to work with youth under-represented in current GAAP studies. This project has three specific goals: 1) to learn about current HIV prevention messages familiar to rural and Aboriginal youth; 2) to explore with youth the ways their experience of gender and gendered relations affects their HIV risk; 3) to explore possibilities for developing gender-sensitive HIV prevention programs tailored to these specific youth; and 4) to invite participants from the Aboriginal and rural working groups to become members of the GAAP Youth Advisory Board. Read the report (PDF). PROJECT: TIG Xpress - HIV/AIDS Partners: TakingIT Global & Teen Net Funder: The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) This project aims to create innovative tools for HIV/AIDS prevention and education, with a focus on issues of global social justice. Participants in Canada and South Africa will use photography to express themselves on HIV, with a focus on three main areas: Social Inequalities Inequalities that contribute to HIV vulnerability, both on a global scale, as well as within Canada Determinants of health such as poverty and gender violence Global Education Global disparities and impacts, such as the migrant workforce and the lack of access to antiretroviral medication Global responsibilities and failures for HIV prevention and aid The disproportional impact of HIV/AIDS on girls and women Representation Analyzing and challenging stereotypical representations of HIV/AIDS Creating alternative representations that reflect youth's own realities The resulting photographs will be used to develop a youth media toolkit for HIV/AIDS education. This toolkit will be featured online at www.TIGed.org, www.utgaap.info and results will also be presented at the upcoming HIV/AIDS conference in Toronto in 2006.