YTHINFO: Educating Youth About HIV Prevention via SMS

YTH is pleased to launch YTHINFO, a SMS campaign reaching youth weekly with HIV prevention information and resources tailored to their needs and lifestyles.

Eighty-eight percent of young Americans age 13 to 17 have their own cell phone or smart phone or daily access to one, and 91% of them use text messaging, texting an average of 30 messages per day (Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015, Pew Internet Research, 2015).

Multiple campaigns around the world have shown effectiveness in using text messages to educate an audience about risk factors for HIV, remind users to get tested, and share information about staying healthy, including practicing safer sex.

YTHINFO also allows users to search for local HIV testing sites and sexual health services from their phone. YTH’s SMS-based clinic locator provides information about local free and low-cost sexual health clinics from the CDC NPIN database. Users can text “CLINIC plus zipcode” to 61827 and YTHINFO will provide four of the closest youth-friendly clinics.

YTH is promoting the SMS campaign through online social media advertising and partnerships with youth-serving organizations to reach underserved youth with weekly text messages.

Spread the Word About YTHINFO

How can you support the YTHINFO campaign? Ask youth that you work with to text the word “YTHINFO” to 61827 on their cell phone to opt-in on receiving these weekly text messages.

You can also share the YTHINFO campaign with your network and partners.

Sample Messages

Here’s some examples of how you can share the YTHINFO campaign with your network:

YTHINFO is a fresh way to stay up-to-date on sex health info via text. Learn more. https://yth.org/ythinfo/

Give your phone a #sex #health #knowledge upgrade with YTHINFO. Learn more. https://yth.org/ythinfo/

Your phone. Your health. You’re in control. Text “YTHINFO” to 61827 to get started. https://yth.org/ythinfo/

 

tags: HIV/AIDS, mhealth, SMS, texting.