Realizing Power, Transforming Community
By: Mark O'Neil - Posted on: 7/16/2009

The 2009 Wisconsin Youth HIV Prevention Institute: “Realizing Power, Transforming Community” was a resounding success by all accounts. Held at Lawrence University on July 12th through 15th, the Institute enjoyed the participation of youth and adults delegates from around the state.

Institute co-directors, Hector Torres and Mark O’Neil, were joined by 15 other facilitators who coordinated the activities in “Home Based Groups,” also known as HBGs. These groups served as the home of much of the actual activity of the Institute. In the HBGs, delegates met each other, discussed their aspirations, developed working agreements for conduct, completed risk assessments, and evaluated the programming. They also completed a group challenge course and created a take-home project that explored the Institute themes: realizing personal power as young people and transformation of community.

Delegates of the Institute came from all over Wisconsin, from Appleton to Madison and from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. They were all members of member organizations of the Rainbow Alliance for Youth. Overall 40% of the delegates were people of color.

The Wisconsin HIV Prevention Institute is held every two years and furthers a long-term vision of expanding the capacity of Wisconsin communities to address the needs of LGBT youth. Because the overall project is developmental, each Institute has a slightly different focus that builds on previous programming. In 2009, the Institute emphasized building peer education skills in HIV and alcohol risk prevention, developing healthy community, and that LGBT youth recognize they are powerful and put that strength into action to change their communities for the better.

Highlights of this year’s program included a simulation game in which delegates formed two teams and sent emissaries to discover each other’s cultures, an action-packed prevention skills-building course, and an art project that brought all the activity of the Institute together.

Photos will be posted soon so please check back!