1. ENGAGING, EDUCATING
AND EMPOWERING
GAY MILLENNIALS
Lessons from Vancouver‟s
Mpowerment Project

2. WHO WE ARE
Gabriel Caruana – Mpowerment Core Group Member
Andrew Shopland – Mpowerment Project Coordinator
Claire O’Gorman – Peer Education Programs Manager
Michael Reid – Community Engagement Manager

3. OVERVIEW
 YouthCO‟s Mpowerment Project
 Community-Building & Empowerment
 Peer Education & Health Promotion
 Engagement & Community Organizing

4. WHAT IS THE
MPOWERMENT MODEL?
Guiding Principles:
 Social Focus
 Empowerment Philosophy
 Peer Influence of Safer Sex Messages
 Multi-Level Approach
 Community Building
 Diffusion of Innovations

5. INCREMENTAL ENGAGEMENT
Social Events
 Formal Outreach
Community Member
Workshop / Discussion Night
Core Group Member
 Event Outreach
 Campaigns
 Social Media
 Informal Outreach
 Peer to Peer
 Engagement at events
Facilitator / Mentor
GOAL: 1000 Workshop Participants Over 4 Years

6. HISTORY OF
MPOWERMENT YVR
 2010
 ManCount Survey
 YouthCO seeks evidence-based
intervention to complement the work of
HIM.
 2011
 #gayboysolution engagement campaign
 Partnered with UCSF
 Partnered with HIM / Totally Outright

7. 2012
 Funding received from PHAC, TD Bank &
TELUS.
 Launched project in May 2012.
2013
 Funding received from Vancouver
Foundation
As of October 31st, 2013:
 Project has run for 18 months
 Over 40 events, workshops & discussion
nights
 1,400 total social event attendees
 770 unique attendees
 200 unique workshop participants
 25% secondary engagement
 15% of gay guys age 18-29 have attended
one of our events, skewing towards
younger
Mpowerment YVR

8. MILLENNIALS?
 Generation Y, Echo Boom Generation, iGeneration
 For our purposes: Born 1982-2000
 Political worldview has been shaped by 9/11, Great
Recession, and the rise of tech-enabled social
movements
 Digital natives: Have always had computers, cellphones
and social media
 Socially conscious generation. General spirit of support
for human rights
 Underemployed, and have trouble keeping up with
increasing cost of living

9. GAY MILLENNIALS?
 Coming out younger
 High percentage have experienced bullying
 In Canada, marriage equality has always existed
 Online sex and dating has always been the norm
 Increasing cost of living downtown means most live
away from gay villages
 Increasingly urban HOWEVER… Also rural
 Raised on porn but still not receiving any gay sex
education
 Want more from the gay community & desire healthier
relationships with other gay guys

10. COMMUNITY
BUILDING
Creating spaces for
healthier and more
inclusive communities

11. AUSTIN‟S STORY

12. IT GOT BETTER?
 Communication
 Location Based Social Networks (Grindr, Growlr, Hornet, Scruff, etc.)
 Wide range of dating and cruising sites (Plenty of
Fish, Adam4Adam, Manhunt, Squirt, etc.)
 Tolerance




Vancouver Pride is now a Civic Event
GSA/QSAs in schools
Safe to live outside Davie Village
Same-Sex marriage

13. Apolitical: discrimination is perpetuated
Highly Sexualized: objectification is the norm
Lacking Intimacy: openness is challenging

14. WHAT IS MPOWERMENT?

15. WHAT DO GUYS
ACTUALLY WANT?
Communication
Tolerance
Connection
Acceptance

16. HOW DO WE CREATE
CONNECTION AND
ACCEPTANCE?
 Intimacy
 Inclusion
 Non Sexualized and Sex Positive
 Youth Run

17. PRODUCTION OF SPACE
 Henri Lefebvre – La Production de l’espace (1974)
 Space is socially constructed based on values and the social
production of meanings
 This process is fundamental to the reproduction of society
“Change life! Change Society! These ideas lose
completely their meaning without producing an
appropriate space… new social relations demand a new
space, and vice-versa.”

18. SPACE FOR MPOWERMENT
 Defined values and expectations
 Building container over time
 Shared experiences and intimacy
 Positive feedback cycle

19. OUR SPACE

20. NERDTASTIC

21. TURKEY TIME

22. ENHANCING THE RIPPLE
 Diffusion of Innovation
 Giving the guys skills to
develop their personal
communities
 Event planning
 Translating online communication
to community
 Applied inclusion
 Empowerment
 Personal and Community

23. EDUCATION
 Goals:




Behaviour change
Knowledge transfer
Diffusion of knowledge
Creation of new community norms
 Way easier for this to happen in the
container we‟ve already built

24. PEER EDUCATION FOR
HEALTH PROMOTION
Adapting principles of
peer education for
young gay men

25. BROADCASTED
INFORMATION

26. TYPICAL SEX ED…
 Lacking relevance
 Feeling left out
 Feeling judged
 Lots of myths and
misinformation

27. PEER EDUCATION
 Power in learning from peers
 Increased relevance
 Increased trust and safety
 Removes the traditional
hierarchy in education

28. PEER EDUCATION
WORKSHOPS
 Acknowledge the skills and knowledge in the room
 Allows for two-way discussion, clarification of ideas and
information
 Increases relevance
 Allows for exploration of all the “Grey Areas” and “What
ifs”
 What -> So what

29. PEER EDUCATION AT
YOUTHCO
 Sex-positive
 Inclusive

30. PEER EDUCATION WITH
YOUNG GAY MEN
 Easier to be forthcoming
 Feelings of belonging
 Finding meaning
 Sense of security
 Information from a reliable
source

31. MPOWERMENT
CURRICULUM

32. REFLECTIONS &
IMPORTANCE
 Peer relational practice
 Allows relationships to form and
development
 Ongoing feedback and reform
 Space for follow-up and
questions

33. ENGAGEMENT &
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

34. ENGAGEMENT
1.
Reach Out
2.
Develop Relationships
3.
Foster Community
4.
Share our Vision
5.
Build Trust
6.
Inspire Action
7.
Cultivate and Steward
Ultimate Goal:
 To mobilize youth to be leaders in the HIV movement and in their own
communities.

35. THE EXCUSES: ENGAGING
YOUNG GUYS
 “Young guys don‟t want to come to our programs.”
 That‟s because the program needs to be fun and fulfill an actual want
or need of young gay guys.
 “Young guys are apathetic and just don‟t care.”
 That‟s because they‟re not being inspired. This generation has a taste
for the dramatic/emotional and expect to be stirred to action.
 “It‟s hard to reach/find young gay guys.”
 This is actually the easiest generation to reach in the history of
humanity. They‟re all online.

36. THE EXCUSES: ENGAGING
YOUNG GUYS
 “This generation is lazy and self-entitled.”
 So were the Baby Boomers. And Generation X. Everyone always thinks
that about the youngest generation.
 “We can‟t relate to younger guys.”
 Then hire younger staff or empower a group of young volunteers. Be
a youth ally and practice good Eldership.
 “The young guys we do find aren‟t „high-risk‟ enough.”
 There is no standard demographic profile of the young gay male that
gets HIV. Don‟t go looking for specific people or you‟ll ignore
everyone else. Target the community and you‟ll reach everyone
organically.

37. THE EXCUSES: SOCIAL
MEDIA
 “Social Media doesn‟t actually accomplish anything
and we don‟t have the staff time.”
 “Our communications policies don‟t allow junior staff
and volunteers to speak for the organization.”
 “We have no control over what other people say
to/about us online.”
 “Social Media is a passing fad.”
 Followers, fans, and „likes‟ don‟t actually mean
anything.”

38. SOCIAL MEDIA AT
YOUTHCO
 Learning from 2008 Obama Campaign
 Social Media Policy = Not to have a social media policy
 Decentralized control to each program. Autonomous
communities
 Brand and values consistency ensured by managers via
Hootsuite
 Only delete comments in extreme circumstances! Engage
in a dialogue
 Specific strategy for each platform
 YouthCO currently has 12 social media accounts on 5
platforms targeting specific youth communities. Controlled
by many staff and volunteers

39. WHICH PLATFORM
WHEN?
 Facebook – Event
promotion, program
pages, direct messaging
 Twitter – Professional /
informative
 Instagram – Pictures/videos
from event
 Tumblr – Miscellaneous fun
reposts

40. WHICH PLATFORM
WHEN?
 YouTube – Gay and sexpositive video promos
 Email – Rarely used.
Facebook messaging
instead
 Texting – Core Group
members and those who
opt-in
 Facebook Advertising Cost effective, hypertargeted social advertising

41. STAYING IN CONTROL…
 Centralizes control of multiple social media accounts onto one control panel
 Allows multiple staff/volunteers to control multiple channels
 Social CRM (contact relationship manager) database.
 Manages contacts via email, phone, texting, Facebook, Twitter as well as live
events

42. NATIONBUILDER

43. MILLENNIALS & DIGITAL
ACTIVISM
 Technology-enabled social movements and protests of
the past 15 years have shaped the attitudes of Millennials
surrounding human rights and social justice
 What makes digital movement-building successful?
 It inspires and/or organizes real-world action.

44. FROM ONLINE ENGAGEMENT
TO REAL WORLD ACTION
 What is the value of a comment or a “like” on
Facebook?
 NO VALUE if we don‟t follow up!
 Each time someone interacts with our page or post it‟s
an invitation for us to talk to them
 We‟ve already done the hardest thing, which is getting
them to notice us. Don‟t waste it
 It‟s not a “cold” contact because they either follow our
organization or we have friends in common. Mention the
connection to build trust

46. •
•
•
•
Tagged with “MP General”
Flagged for “Initial Outreach”
All contact information he‟s shared with us is available
If he has interacted with us on Twitter or
Facebook, NationBuilder matches the names up and links his
social media accounts to his profile

47. CHALLENGES & ISSUES
 Confidentiality: Community organizing data is kept
entirely separate from service & health data
 Building relationships across demographics within the
youth community. Sometimes get stuck in the same
social networks
 As program has skewed younger, guys in their late 20s
are not as interested

48. LESSONS LEARNED
 Peer education more important than ever
 Young gay guys have a strong desire to build a healthier gay
community
 Young guys need a voice at the table
 Elders to listen and not judge
 Social Media is by far the best way to reach this
population, but must be done relevantly and intentionally
 Taking a community organizing approach to health
programs is powerful
 Youth are passionate and knowledgeable – empower them
to reach their potential

49. CONTACT
Facebook
Mpowerment YVR
mpwr.ca/f
Instagram
@mpowermentyvr
mpwr.ca/i
Twitter
@mpowermentyvr
mpwr.ca/t
YouTube
mpowermentyvr
mpwr.ca/y
Email
mpowermentyvr@youthco.org