San Francisco Gay Men's Community Initiative: New approaches for uniting the gay men's community and fostering new community norms around gay men's health and wellness, HIV and substance use prevention, and caring and responsibility

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Doug Sebesta, PhD, Oscar Macias, Vincent E. Fuqua, and Joe Imbriani. HIV Prevention, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-554-9073, vincent@sfgmci.org

San Francisco Gay Men's Community Initiative (SFGMCI) is a health activist organization creating innovative community-building and health promotion activities for gay and non-gay identified MSM in the SF Bay Area. SFGMCI grew out of research assessing these men's health and social needs; findings suggested that gay men, especially those most alienated/disaffected from one another and from current prevention and health promotion efforts, needed a new paradigm of community-initiated health embracing individual and community empowerment around physical, emotional, and social health and well being as opposed to the HIV and substance use prevention focus which has largely defined the health reality of gay men for the past two decades.

SFGMCI is fostering a grass-roots community-wide effort to develop new social structures that empower men to educate, support, and motivate one another around improving individual and collective health, and re-establishing community norms for safety, responsibility and community affiliation. Community members are actively involved in the conceptualization, strategizing and planning of all activities, events and messages, and are serving as the primary catalyst behind the mobilization of the larger community. Newly formed African American, Latino, older and queer youth community groups are addressing the needs of their respective communities while at the same time working collaboratively to foster unity and community-wide health and wellness.

The presenter will provide an overview of the logic and rationale behind the SFGMCI, identify useful tools for assessing the health and social needs of gay men, and discuss successful models of health and wellness promotion for gay men.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants in this session will be able to