A Real Challenge

Satya

Satya

C'est la vie
Retired Staff
MBTI
INXP
I volunteer for an HIV awareness program which reaches out to young gay, bisexual, and bi curious men. The program works well within cities but it has one major limitation; it has trouble reaching out into rural communities.

As a result of the internet, gay and bisexual men no longer need to go to the local bar to hook up. This presents a major challenge, as traditionally, HIV outreach was mainly through gay bars. Now as a result of the internet, a slew of hook up sites have emerged which allow vulnerable and uneducated portions of the gay community to find sexual partners, particularly those in rural communities. Given the conservative and isolated nature of rural communities, gay and bisexual men are also less likely to allow their orientation to be known.

The Challenge:

Come up with new innovative ways to reach young gay and bisexual men in rural communities with the information regarding safer sex practices and any other resources they may need.
 
Hmmmm you can try and advertise on the most popular sites about contraception?
 
Sithious said:
Don't you guys use condoms?
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facepalm.jpg


That would be the point.

I live in a state which teaches only abstinence only education and which has no specialized sexual education for gays. We are looking for creative ways to get the message out so that gay and bisexual men in rural communities will use condoms.
 
Lucifer said:
Hmmmm you can try and advertise on the most popular sites about contraception?
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I have been considering that, but I'm not quite sure how to go about such advertising. The sites are businesses and have no interest in promoting safer sex practices. The very existence of the sites deters such practices.
 
I just find it odd that the use of condoms isn't more widespread in the gay community in this day and age.

If you're seeing someone sure don't use a condom, but if you're fucking around it doesn't make any sense to not wear rubber.

And they know it.

So what you're left with, is scare tactics basically. Or something very clever that will stay in the back of their head. Good luck :)
 
Start a viral campaign via Facebook is one way to spread awareness. All you need, really, is an 'in' to the rural communities and get that person to spread it around to their friends. Or get those 'ins' in on the campaign to promote safe-sex awareness to personally do so in their community.

That's probably all I can think of.
 
Also we need more information.

How much resources do you have at your disposal?
 
Sithious said:
I just find it odd that the use of condoms isn't more widespread in the gay community in this day and age.

If you're seeing someone sure don't use a condom, but if you're fucking around it doesn't make any sense to not wear rubber.

And they know it.

So what you're left with, is scare tactics basically. Or something very clever that will stay in the back of their head. Good luck :)
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I'll repeat this one more time.

I live in a rural state, which does not have the same kind of sexual education that you may have been exposed to when you went to school. In other words, they don't teach about condoms in the schools out here. It falls on the HIV awareness organizations to teach safer sex practices to vulnerable populations like gays. In addition to that, its been found that even with an awareness of condoms, that many young men don't know how to go about being assertive in using them. Hence, HIV awareness programs have developed means of teaching gay men how to deal with the "heat of the moment" situations that arise. All of this information has been demonstrated within peer reviewed literature, to reduce the number of new infections in communities. The problem is getting the information out there, particularly in rural communities.

Now obviously you have some sort of attitude in regards to this issue and have lots of false assumptions, so I'll ask you kindly to refrain from posting in this thread unless you actually have something to contribute.
 
TheDaringHatTrick said:
Start a viral campaign via Facebook is one way to spread awareness. All you need, really, is an 'in' to the rural communities and get that person to spread it around to their friends. Or get those 'ins' in on the campaign to promote safe-sex awareness to personally do so in their community.

That's probably all I can think of.
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I like your thinking.

If we could train and establish representatives in the rural communities, then they could go about spreading the information throughout the community. In essence, we only need to find one or two representative within each community to go about spreading the information.

We are already on facebook, and its a limited success.
 
Sithious said:
Also we need more information.

How much resources do you have at your disposal?
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We have a underfunded program centered in a small city. However, the amount of our funding resources increases as we do more outreach and we are particularly good at using the funding we do have at our disposal.
 
Satya said:
I have been considering that, but I'm not quite sure how to go about such advertising. The sites are businesses and have no interest in promoting safer sex practices. The very existence of the sites deters such practices.
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I am just brainstorming:

I mean just to start perhaps you convince condom companies to advertise there, they likely have more resources anyway and they would probably get a lot of business from that.

Or you could advertise on sights frequented by the gay community

Do you think it would be at all possible to convince your state to pass a law requiring such sights to provide links to safe sex web sites?

Or you could do a sponsored add, like when you google something and there is a column in the right hand corner. You would have to have use certain keywords though.

The best way to deter this sort of thing would be to get into the communities themselves. Perhaps you could target friendly community centers.

If there are any

Well I'll think about this more and get back to you later.
 
Satya said:
I like your thinking.

If we could train and establish representatives in the rural communities, then they could go about spreading the information throughout the community. In essence, we only need to find one or two representative within each community to go about spreading the information.

We are already on facebook, and its a limited success.
Click to expand...

How assertive is your group, and how many members do you have? Maybe you can run a little competition for a prize. The person who invites the most members into the group gets a reward of some kind. That way, the bigger your group is, anytime you run an event, the more people are aware of it... and possibly might make it out.

Of course, you just mentioned that you have a small budget to begin with. What about going in to talk to one of the local businesses and getting them to sponsor you? When I was with the rotary club at school, we went into Bestbuy and got the manager to sponsor us and offered an XBox for one of our prizes. Often, it just takes a well-written letter.
 
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Would canvassing rural communities about this sort of thing be feasible?
 
Lucifer said:
Would canvassing rural communities about this sort of thing be feasible?
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You never really know until you try. Sometimes the most unexpected people get involved and turn the tide.
 
Satya said:
I'll repeat this one more time.

INow obviously you have some sort of attitude in regards to this issue and have lots of false assumptions, so I'll ask you kindly to refrain from posting in this thread unless you actually have something to contribute.
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I'm sorry if it appeared that way, that wasn't my intention.

Hmm, I am usually very creative, but right now I'm really not thinking straight. (no pun intended)

But I do like the facebook idea and what others have contributed with so far
 
Lucifer said:
I am just brainstorming:

I mean just to start perhaps you convince condom companies to advertise there, they likely have more resources anyway and they would probably get a lot of business from that.

Or you could advertise on sights frequented by the gay community

Do you think it would be at all possible to convince your state to pass a law requiring such sights to provide links to safe sex web sites?

Or you could do a sponsored add, like when you google something and there is a column in the right hand corner. You would have to have use certain keywords though.

The best way to deter this sort of thing would be to get into the communities themselves. Perhaps you could target friendly community centers.

If there are any

Well I'll think about this more and get back to you later.
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These are some good ideas, keep them coming.

I'll have to inquire whether or not we can buy ads through these hook up sites.
 
TheDaringHatTrick said:
How assertive is your group, and how many members do you have? Maybe you can run a little competition for a prize. The person who invites the most members into the group gets a reward of some kind. That way, the bigger your group is, anytime you run an event, the more people are aware of it... and possibly might make it out.

Of course, you just mentioned that you have a small budget to begin with. What about going in to talk to one of the local businesses and getting them to sponsor you? When I was with the rotary club at school, we went into Bestbuy and got the manager to sponsor us and offered an XBox for one of our prizes. Often, it just takes a well-written letter.
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Both of these are superb ideas. I now have several question to inquire about.
 
Kill a senator and attach a note to his body?

That tends to get publicity.
 
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